
Class 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE MAKING OF 

VIRGINIA AND THE MIDDLE COLONIES 

1578-1701 



f 



BOOKS BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 



The Making of New England, 1530-1643. 
Illustrated. l2mo. $1.50. 

The Making ok the O heat West, 1512-1853. 
Illustrated. i2mo. $1.50. 

The Making of Virginia and the Middle 
Colonies, 1573-1701. Illustrated. ISmo. 
$1.50. 



v^ 



THE MAKING OF 



VIRGINIA AND THE MIDDLE COLONIES 



1578-1701 



SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 



Histories make men wise "—Bacon 



WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



**0CT 3 1893. 



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NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S S 

1893 



ONS 



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Copyright, 1893 
By CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS 









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TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



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PREFACE 



AS in "The Making of New England," and "The Mak- 
ing of the Great West," this book aims to meet, so 
far as it may, the want for brief, compact, and handy 
manuals of the beginnings of onr country. And though 
primarily designed for school or home instruction, in the 
study of history, pains have been taken to make it of in- 
terest to adult readers, more especially to teachers, by 
the addition of copious explanatory notes, or by refer- 
ence to first-hand authorities, as aids to fuller investiga- 
tion. 

To so fill out the bare outlines of the school history as 
to give the pupil something more than the dry bones ; 
to so condense the exhaustive narrative as to put its es- 
sence, without loss of vitality, in a few words, are ob- 
jects that have been kept steadily in view in preparing 
these volumes. It is not enough to state that, in such 
or such a year, war broke out between two countries. 
Every intelligent person demands a reason, and is en- 
titled to it. Many times I have heard teachers giving, 
or attempting to give, verbal explanations of some ob- 
scure statement in the text-book from memory. Not 
seldom teachers are asked questions in the school-room 



vi PREFACE 

that they are unable to answer. A manual, from which 
short selections might be read, would have satisfied the 
pupil, and have saved the teacher's credit. 

The maps being mostly designed as aids to ready and 
rapid reference from the text, are unencumbered with 
anything not expressly treated of therein. And instead 
of being bound by the strict order of chronology, it 
has been thought better to follow the development of 
one colony into another, as in Virginia and Maryland, 
through its legitimate channels. 



CONTENTS 



I. The English in Virginia. 

PAGE 

Sib Humphrey Gilbert 1 

Sir Walter Raleigh 6 

Raleigh's First Expedition, 15S4 . 9 | 

First Colony at Roanoke, 15S5-S6 . 15 

Tobacco . . . . 22 

Second Colony at Roanoke, 1587 . 24 

Indian Worship 30 

Virginia Revived 31 

Indian Archery 40 

The Struggle for Life, 160S-10 . . 42 

The Era of Progress, 1610-24 ... 54 

II. The English in Maryland. 

The Founding of Maryland, 1034 . 60 
Political Strifes Begun and 

Ended 77 

Council with the Iroquois ... 86 

III. The Great Iroquois League. 

The Iroquois Country and Nations 00 

The Iroquois at Home 101 



IV. The Dutch on Manhattan. 

PAGE 

A Glance at Holland 108 

Hudson's Voyage, 1009 110 

New York in the Cradle, 1610-20 . 117 

Minuit, Van Twiller, Kieft . . . 123 
Stuyvesant, and End of Dutch 

Rule, 1647-64 135 

Landmarks of Long Island ... 146 

Description of Albany 158 

East New Jersey 161 

West New Jersey 169 



V. The Dutch. Swedes, and English on 
the Delaware. 

The Founding of New Sweden . . 177 

Penn Founds Pennsylvania, 16S1 . 188 

The Building of Philadelphia . . 195 
Rise of the Commonwealth, 1684- 

1701 207 

Tradition of the Long Walk . . 216 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Lake Champlain .... Frontispiece 

Sir H. Gilbert 2 

Chair Made from Drake's Ship . . 3 

Fishing Fleet at Newfoundland . 5 

Sir Walter Raleigh 7 

Landing on the Island 10 

Musketeer, Settlement Period . 12 

Lord and Lady, Secotan .... 13 
Roanoke Island and Approaches, 

Map 16 

Indian Village (Hariot) .... 18 

Indian Conjuror 20 

Tobacco Plant 23 

Hariot's Map of Virginia, 15S8 . . 26 

James I ~ 32 

Entrance to Chesapeake Bay . . 06 

Fort at Jamestown 38 

Captain Smith 43 

Deposition of Wingfield .... 44 

Powhatan 46 

English Gentlewoman, 1626 ... 48 

Building the Pinnace 51 

Lower James Settlements, Map . 55 

Pocahontas " |S 

Tobacco Ships 5 ( .) 

Upper James Settlements, Map . . 61 

Deserted Homes 64 

Early Maryland Settlements, Map 67 

Henrietta Maria 68 

Cecilius Calvert 69 

In the Chesapeake 71 

First Landing Place 72 

St. George's Island, Md., off St. 

Mary's 73 

The Bluff, St. Mary's, Md. ... 75 

Claiborne's Post at Kent Island . 78 

Return from a Hunt 80 

Site of Jesuit Chapel, St. Inigoes . 83 

The Iroquois Country, Map ... 91 



96 

98 
102 
103 
104 
105 
106 



PAGE 

Sa Ya Yeath Qua Pieth Ton, King 
of the maquas, a mohawk, or 

Bear, Chief 92 

Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Ron, Emperor 

of the Six Nations 93 

Long House of the Iroquois ... 94 
Econ Oh Koan, King of the River 

Nation 

Ho Nee Yeath Tan No Ron, King 
of the Generechgarich .... 

Totem, Five Nations ...... 

Bear Totem, Indian Drawing . . 
Tortoise Totem, Indian Drawing . 
Beaver Totem, Indian Drawing. . 

Iroquois and Prisoner 

Dutch Windmill 109 

Dutch Costumes HO 

Robyn's Rift, Mouth of the Kills. Ill 

Below the Highlands 113 

Limit of Hudson's Voyage .... 115 
Hell Gate (Dutch Print) .... 117 
Earliest Picture of New Amster- 
dam us 

New Netherland Seal 119 

First Settlement at Albany . . . 121 
Hudson River Settlements, Map . 124 

Father Isaac Jogues 130 

The Patroon, De Vries 132 

Seal of New Amsterdam .... 135 
Governor's House and Church, 

New York 136 

The Stadt Huys 137 

Old House, New York, Built 1668 . 139 
New Netherland in 1656, Map . . 141 

Stuyvesant's Tomb 142 

Miller's Plan of New York in 1695 144 
Long Island Settlements, Map . . 147 
Old House, Southold, L. I. . . . 151 
Old Dutch Church, Albany ... 159 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

The Jerseys, Delaware, and Penn- 
sylvania, Map 162 

Colonial Table 166 

Anhki.w Hamilton 167 

Bib Edmund Andbos 171 

lobd cobnbuby 174 

Swedish Costumes 179 

Early Swedish Church, Wilming- 
ton 183 

Trinity Fort, from Campanius . . 186 

PENH Ska i- 18s 

Penn's Chair 190 



PAGE 

Indian Fort, Susquehanna (Old 

Pbint) 101 

Penn's Brewing-Jar 198 

Philadelphia and Vicinity, .Mai- . 196 

Letitia Cottage 19H 

Penn Mansion, Philadelphia. Lat- 
er Residence 201 

Treaty Ground, Kensington . . . 203 

Treaty Monument 205 

Friends' Meeting- House .... 209 

James Logan 213 

Penn's Town Residence 215 



I 

THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 

"/ scorn to change or fear.'" 

ELIZABETH had been twenty years Queen of Eng- 
land before any step was taken toward colonizing 
America. 1 At that epoch men's minds were more set 
upon discovery than founding colonies. Indeed, it is 
known that the Queen herself had a very strong bias that 
way. The reason is plain. Bold deeds have ever been 
a stronger spur to human effort than peaceful ones, and 
thirst for glory more potent than all besides. Men would 
rather be Columbus in chains than not be Columbus at 
all, and so it was that the real worth of the New World, 
either as a source of national wealth or as a home for 
overcrowded Europe, was lost sight of in the more daz- 
zling scheme of finding a short way to China. 

This was Avhere Columbus had failed ; this was what 
the Queen had set her heart upon ; and this also was 
what all the learned geographers 2 of the time were talk- 
ing about. Whoever should perform this great feat 
would bring renown to his country, and fame and fort- 
une to himself. But there was something in the way. 

Hitherto England had been playing a little, an ignoble 
part. Instead of taking the lead in voyages of discov- 



SIK III .MI'IIRKY GILBERT 



civ, as she might and should have done, her ships and 
sailors— and hers were the best of both — had turned to 
plundering the treasure-fleets of Spain. What if high 
honors were showered on those who followed this base 
business ? Our age looks back in wonder at the morality 
of that, when the arm of power was raised, not to pun- 
ish, but to reward, 
what was piracy 
then and is pira- 
cy now. But no 
very high moral 
aims actuated the 
crowned heads of 
that day, nor were 
the people them- 
selves free from a 
lingering trace of 
barbarism. Court 
and people alike 
exulted over the 
bringing home of 
a captured gal- 
leon ; Drake be- 
came the popular 
idol, a n d w a s 
cheered to the echo whenever he went abroad ; even 
Elizabeth herself Avas not ashamed to visit his ship, or, if 
report be true, to share in the ill-gotten plunder ; gold 
silenced all complaints, though we are told that it grieved 
Drake much because " some prime courtiers refused the 
gold he offered them as gotten by pvracie." This was 
Elizabeth's England. 3 

And so we find that, nearly a century after its discov- 




■ilR H. GILBERT. 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT 



3 



ery, the North American continent had been weakly oc- 
cupied only at its extremities, bnt by a Spaniard at one, 
and a Frenchman at the other. As yet all the actual 
colonizing had been done in Florida and Canada. Drake 
and Hawkins were busy burning the Spanish settlements 
at the south, while at the north the French remained 
unnoticed, possibly because they were not thought worth 
plundering. There was no gold there. 

Through the efforts of a few public-spirited men, who 
had their country's good more 
at heart than gain, yet desired 
glory with honor, there came 
such a change that, from being 
most backward, Englishmen 
suddenly grew most forward 
in setting forth both discovery 
and colonization. Must it be 
told that these ardent cham- 
pions of their country's glory 
were left to raise their own 
colonists, and to fit out their 
own ships, precisely as the 
titled buccaneers had been do- 
ing ? Elizabeth gave gracious permission, and no more. 
But that was enough. Perhaps national pride had been 
humbled at seeing Spain and France so much more ac- 
tive in the New World. Perhaps jealousy may have had 
something to do with bringing about the change, or pos- 
sibly the time had only just grown ripe for it. In any 
case, it was thought a shrewd thing to have let the 
Spaniards and French beat the bush for other men to 
catch the birds. 4 That was England's way of looking 
at it. 




CHAIR MADE PROM DRAI 



4 SIR HUMPHRElPGlLBERT 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the first Englishman who 

undertook to bring English colonists to these shores. 
It was he again who offered to be their leader. In 1578 
the Queen granted him a royal charter for six years. 
It was rive before he could get his fleet ready. In vain 
the Queen tried to turn him from his purpose. His re- 
solve was not to be shaken. 5 

What manner of man was this who could thns brave 
the displeasure of his royal mistress? Of gentle blood, 
yet nobler far by nature ; neither corsair nor adventurer, 
yet of lofty courage ; he was, perhaps, a little of a dreamer 
— an enthusiast. In him greatness of mind and great- 
ness of soul were strikingly combined. Take, for instance, 
this plea of his for the dreaded Arctic voyage : " He is 
not worthy to live at all that, for fear or danger of death 
shunneth his country's service, and his own honor, seeing 
death is inevitable and the fame of virtue immortal.' 
This was Sir Humphrey's creed, and we shall soon see 
how nobly he lived up to it. 

Gilbert's first dream had been of a Northwest Passage. 
It may well be, therefore, that he still cherished a secret 
hope of making his colony an aid to that vain search— 
an outpost whence the better to prosecute it — as he had 
decided to plant himself on the mainland, next adjoining 
Newfoundland/' where the nearness of that island, then 
a rendezvous for fishing fleets, promised some support. 
Yet that alone was a substantial support at need. All 
this inhospitable coast was then called Norombega. 7 It 
was therefore for this land, known vaguely through 
report, that Gilbert set sail with five ships, four of 
which safely reached Newfoundland. Of this famed 
island of the sea he then took formal possession in his 
sovereigns name. 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT 

After refitting, Gilbert again set sail for the coast he 
was fated never to reach alive. His ship foundered in a 
gale, with all on board, but death had no terrors for him. 
To the last he nobly sustained the character he himself 
had set forth — that of a devout Christian soldier. He 
was last seen, Bible in hand, bidding his terrified com- 




FISHING FLEET AT NEWFOUNDLAND. 



panions be of good cheer. This was all the word the 
survivors brought back. 

Elizabeth's shrewd remark, that Gilbert was " a man 
of no good hap by sea," had thus come true, yet there 
was greater heroism in such a death as his, than in 
boarding a galleon sword in hand. 

So striking an incident hardly could fail of finding its 
way into verse. Accordingly we find a poet of Gilbert's 
own time is the first to perpetuate his dying words : 

" Heaven is as near from sea, as from the land." 8 



6 SIR IIUMPIIKKV^TUUiERT 

No more fitting epitaph could be found for Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert, the Father of American Colonization, and 
its first martyr. All honor be to him for first turning 
away men's thoughts from buccaneering exploits, to the 

higher aims of a Christian civilization ! 



1 Colonizing America was began, 

but ihj# by Englishmen. Sec what fol- 
lows. 

- Geographers had pointed out that, 
since the discovery of our continent, the 
problem of a Northwest Passage opened 
the greatest field for glory. 

3 Elizabeth waged war with Spain, 
without the name, by permitting her 
subjects to attack Spanish ports and 
ships, while the two crowns were nom- 
inally at peace. 

4 This figure is used by Sir II. Gilbert 
in his Discourse, printed in 1510. A 
copy is in the John Carter Brown Li- 
brary, Providence, R. I. 

6 See Gilbert's letter to Walsingham 
(one of Elizabeth's Secretaries of State), 
giving his reasons why he could not 
comply with her Majesty's wishes.— Cal- 
endar Br. State Papers, vol. 159. Ra- 
leigh wanted to go with Gilbert, but the 
Queen positively forbade it. 

a Newfoundland had been a resort, 



no one knows how long, for the fisher- 
men of all Europe ; but there was no 
permanent settlement. At the end of 
the fishing season the island was desert- 
ed. Gilbert's voyage is in Ilakluyt, vol. 
iii. 

7 Norombega. See Making of New 
England, of this series, pp. 4, 5, for ref- 
erence to this name. In the Gilbert grant 
the country to be occupied is styled " the 
northerly parts of Atlantis, called Xovns 
Orbis!' 

h This line occurs in Fitz-Geffrey's 
poem on Sir Francis Drake, printed at 
Oxford, 1590. Longfellow also makes 
use of it in his verses to Sir II. Gilbert. 
The original reading is : 

"Ilea ven is as near from sea, as from 

the land ; 
What though your country's tomb you 

could not have ? 
You sought your country's good, nor 

country's grave." 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 

"Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall. " 

Though Gilbert had laid down his life, it was not all 
in vain, as his purpose lived on. His half-brother, Sir 
Walter Ealeigh, whom the Qneen had forbidden to go 
on this voyage, now took up the work in something of 
the same spirit. Though so different in mind, eharac- 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



ter, and purpose, these two men seem to have been 
bound up together, in a sense, and their work should so 
stand in history. 

At this period Raleigh was rich, powerful, and in high 
favor with Elizabeth, who had made him, and whom he 
knew as quickly could unmake him should he dare dis- 
obey her, for this haughty princess ruled her court with 
a rod of iron. No doubt 
he had been eager to 
go with Gilbert, but 
when she said remain, 
there was no alterna- 
tive left him but to do 
as he was bid. 

Raleigh is handed 
down to us as being a 
tall, handsome man, 
with a long face, very 
h i g h forehead, d a r k 
hair, and drooping eye- 
lids. 1 His beard turned 
up, naturally. His face, 
on the whole, is what 
Ave call intellectual 

when we mean that nature has set her mark on a 
man. Though not nobly born he was one of nature's 
noblemen. By all accounts Raleigh was one of the 
most distinguished-looking personages of his time. That 
he was vain, as well as proud, is shown by his going 
about bedizened with jewels and precious stones, from 
head to foot. 2 That he was no less sharp-witted than 
gallant, Ave knoAV from the story of his having aa^oii the 
Queen's favor by laying down his neAV velvet cloak at 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 



8 SIB WALTER SLEIGH 

her feet, so that she might not have to walk in the 
mire. 8 And that he was aspiring and audacious is evi- 
dent from the anecdote of his having scratched on a 
window-pane, with his diamond ring, where the Queen 
would be sure to see it : 

" Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall," 

to which Elizabeth replied, with her own : 

" If thy heart fail thee, then climb not at all." 

Men have called Ealeigh selfish, ungrateful, untruth- 
ful even, but never incapable. His head was full of 
grand ideas, and he is always at his best when planning 
or executing some great enterprise. Here he Avas with- 
out a peer. Certainly Raleigh was a many-sided man. 
He speaks of his youth as a training in the arts of a 
gentleman and a soldier. At seventeen he was fighting 
for the Protestant cause in France ; at thirty he was 
ouv of the first gentlemen of the realm. One time he is 
foremost in all the follies of the court ; again he is found 
seeking the seclusion of his study. What strange con- 
tradictions, we say. Yet this is human nature ; this was 
Raleigh. 

In his closet Ealeigh became a poet, historian, philos- 
opher. And he could "toil terribly," as his writings 
show to this day. We wonder, and wonder again, at 
the inconsistencies of his character, } T et through all we 
see cropping out the strong desire to be a benefactor to 
his race, and that is something we can and do admire in 
spite of all his failings. Americans will ever honor the 
name of Ealeigh. He was no Gilbert. Gilbert's was 
the truer, the nobler type of heroism, yet Ealeigh was 
one of the sort of men who make the world move on — 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH i) 

who are born, not made. He knew every rope in a ship ; 
he knew exactly how to provide for a voyage ; he could 
call to his aid the men most experienced in seafaring- 
life. Finally, he obtained a new charter, in his own 
name, in place of Gilbert's old one, and this done, he 
was ready for the great effort of his life. 

1 " Sour-eye-lidded." For personal 3 The incident of the cloak is made 
description see Aubrey's Corresp., vol. use of by Scott in Kenilworth. Fuller is 
ii., Partii., p. 500. the original authority for this, as well 

2 See Xotes to Scott's Kenilworth. as the succeeding anecdote of the dia- 
When Raleigh was arrested, 1618, his mond ring. True or not, they reflect the 
pockets were found full of diamonds prevailing opinion of Raleigh at any 
and precious stones, hurriedly removed rate. 

from his dress. 



RALEIGH'S FIRST EXPEDITION, 1584. 

"Ash the Wingandicoa savages, 
They can relate of Grinuile and his deeds." 

—Old Ballad. 

Ealeigh's first step was to look up a suitable situa- 
tion for a colony. To this end he fitted out two vessels, 
and on April 27, 1584, Captains Barlow and Amidas ' 
sailed out of the Thames. Instead of following in Gil- 
bert's track, they steered the old southerly course, first 
sailed by Columbus, the sooner to get sight of known 
landmarks, as it seems they were to begin their search 
from the southward. 2 

Thus, the Canaries were sighted May 10th, and the 
West Indies, June 10th ; and July 2d they were on 
soundings off the Florida coast, breathing in with de- 
light the perfumed breezes borne off to them from that 
land of flowers. But they knew that the Spaniards 
claimed all that country, and so kept off for some more 
northerly and safer haven. 



10 



raleigii's first expedition, 1584 



In two days more they saw before them the low sands 
of the Carolina coast, girt with foam. All were now on 
the alert for open water and a harbor. Finally, they 
saw an inlet through which they sailed into tin 4 narrow 
seas that trench this coast about. Here they anchored. 

They first landed upon an uninhabited island," xevy 




LANDING ON THE ISLAND. 



sandy and low, but fruitful, it seemed, for wild grapes 
hung in thick clusters all along the water's edge. After 
taking formal possession, first in the Queen's name, and 
then in Raleigh's, they began exploring this island, find- 
ing many trees that were new to them, such as the fa- 
mous Southern pine, since become so great a source of 
wealth to North Carolina ; and every now and then fir- 



raleigh\s first expedition, 1584 ll 

ing off tlieir muskets, like frolicsome schoolboys, just to 
see the great flocks of cranes rise screaming in the air. 
Like charmed men they wandered up and down, until 
the low sun warned them that it was time to go on 
board their ships again. 

Not till the third day did they see any human being. 
On that day three savages cautiously approached them in 
a canoe. After some coaxing one even ventured on board. 
When they gave him meat to eat, and a shirt and hat to 
cover his nakedness, he was so delighted that he pres- 
ently brought them a boatload of hsh to show his grati- 
tude. 

" Surely," said they, " here are peace and plenty." 

Next day forty or fifty more natives came to see this 
wonderful canoe and its bearded men with white faces. 
The English went to meet them armed and watchful, 
though the chief of the band often stroked his head and 
breast in sign of friendship ; and though they could con- 
verse only by signs, like deaf and dumb men, distrust 
soon wore off, and then these simple savages, who stood 
but little above brutes in the eyes of the white men, 
soon showed themselves by no means wanting in all true 
hospitality. 

This chief, who was brother to the king of that coun- 
try, was treated by his followers with the greatest re- 
spect, none presuming either to sit or speak in his pres- 
ence without permission. His absolute rule was known 
in still another way. All showed a more than childish 
eagerness for the trinkets offered them, but whatever was 
given to one of his men the chief instantly took away, 
making signs that all must be his and his alone. 

The Indians now came almost daily to the island, 
bringing with them skins, coral, or other articles to barter 



12 



raleigh's first expedition, iss4 



for what the whites would part with. A brisk trade of 
this sort soon sprung up, by which the Englishmen were 
the chief gainers. For instance, Granganimeo's eyes 
were so charmed by a bright tin-dish that he gave 

twenty deer-skins for it on the 
spot, and forthwith hung it 
round his neck as an orna- 
ment. This chief wore on 
his forehead a broad plate, 
whether of copper or gold 
the English could not tell, 
for the prince would not suf- 
fer it to be touched, but cer- 
tainly one or the other. This 
led the explorers to think 
there might be gold in the 
country, and to think of little 
else. " Find out if there be 
gold in the country," had 
been Raleigh's last orders 
to them. Was not all 
Europe ringing with 
the fame of Mexico 
and Peru ? ' 

yellow, 




" Gold 
glitterin 



, precious 
could then 



MUSKETEEK, SETTLEMENT PERIOD. , 

lure men to the 
ends of the earth, as it since has to California and Aus- 
tralia. And quest for gold finally brought Raleigh's 
proud head to the block. 

The Indians seemed to set great store by the seed 
pearls they wore on their persons, but the English craf- 



raleigh's first expedition, 1584 



13 



tily refused to sell their arms for pearls, hoping to find 
out where they could be had by pretending not to care 
for them. They saw canoes that would carry twenty 
men, with paddles made concave, like a modern racing 
scull, showing that something may be learned even from 



On their part, the Indians were not wholly ignorant of 
the white race beyond the sea ; for Barlow heard from 
them that a ship, of what 
nation could not be 
learned, had been cast 
away six-and-twenty years 
before, over against Wo- 
cocon, on the mainland, 
called Secotan. The sur- 
vivors got to AVococon, 
but what became of them 
could not be learned. 

These people called 
their country Wyngandi- 
coa. The men were tall, 
stout fellows ; the women 
short, but well formed 
and comely. Their hair was let grow long, like the 
whites, but the men's was worn long only on one side, 
which made them look very odd indeed. The wives 
of the chiefs wore great strings of seed-pearls, as big as 
peas, dangling from their ears down to their waists. One 
of these was secured for Sir Walter Kaleigh. 

After receiving these visits, Captain Barlow went to 
see Granganimeo's town, situated at the north end of 
Boanoke Island, 5 where he and his men met with a most 
friendly reception. It was only a little village, counting 




LORD AND LADY, SECOTAN. 



14 



baleigh's first expedition, i584 



in all but nine poor cabins, built of cedar and surrounded 

by a stockade, with some corn-fields near by, yet it served 
to give the strangers a good idea of how easily those 
people lived, how few were their needs, and what their 
means of defence- 
Full of what they had seen, the explorers now set sail 
for England, where they arrived about the middle of 
September, bringing with them two natives, Wanchese 
and Manteo, in proof that they had won the confidence 
of the people. Well might Barlow say " We found the 
people void of all guile and treason, and such as live af- 
ter the manner of the Golden Age." 

So far as can be judged, from their accounts, the ex- 
plorers had only praise for this new region. But then 
they had only seen it at its best. They had found a 
temperate climate, a friendly people, woods and waters 
alive with game and fish ; yet the one needful thing they 
had not found, and that was a good, safe harbor ; nor had 
they taken time to test the accuracy of their first impres- 
sions. The truth of these could only be known by actual 
trial. This was now vigorously set on foot. 



1 Arthur Barlow and Philip Ami- 
das. To the former wc owe the only 
record of this voyage ; Ilakluyt. III. 
Amidas was probably a Eoreigner. 

" A DUB westerly course would have 
carried them to Virginia sooner than to 
the West Indies, so saving many lives 
and much food. This West India course 
was long a Btranbling-block to coloniz- 
ing Virginia. Barlow thought that the 
(iulf Stream would be dead against him, 
so he actually doubled the distance to 
take advantage of its current. So did 
after-comers. 

3 Uninhabited island, supposed to 
be Wococou. Barlow made it twenty 



miles long and six broad. Some say 
Ocracoke, some Portsmouth. On the 
earliest maps Croatan is placed next 
south of Ilatorask. Wococon next. The 
explorers probably passed through Ocra- 
coke Inlet into Pamlico Sound. North 
Carolina has thus the distinction of hav- 
ing been first visited by Raleigh's men, a 
fact perpetuated in the name of its capi- 
tal, Raleigh. 

4 Mixes of gold or silver were the 
chief inducements to all adventurers in 
the New World. All other resources 
were held cheap, in comparison. 

6 Roanoke was a kind of wampum, or 
shell mouey. 



FIRST COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1585-86 15 



FIRST COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1585-86. 

The glowing reports brought back by his captains 
decided Raleigh to begin a settlement in earnest. His 
fame rose higher than ever ; and as he had given to his 
Queen a new country, she, it is said, now gave it the 
name of Virginia, 1 for herself, the " eternal maiden 
queen." Raleigh had his arms newly cut, with the 
legend " Lord and Governor of Virginia." Thus does 
Virginia stand as a memorial of England's greatest 
monarch. Never had country more pleasing name, or 
princess a more noble namesake. 

By the next April seven ships, with one hundred and 
eight colonists were ready for sea. Raleigh gave Sir 
Richard Grenville, 2 a valiant sea-captain, command over 
the fleet, and Ralph Lane, 3 a soldier of fortune, charge 
over the colony, when it should have landed. 

If ever man deserved success Raleigh did, for he 
spared neither himself nor his purse. Certainly, this 
colony was well equipped. Besides Captain Amidas, who 
was now going out to Virginia again, and Manteo, the 
Indian, who went back too, Raleigh sent out John White, 4 
a clever artist, and Thomas Hariot, 6 a capable mathema- 
tician, to survey and study the country, make maps and 
drawings, mix with and observe the people, and so be 
able to give a full account of all they saw. The fleet 
was of good strength to resist the Spaniards, if they at- 
tacked it — and England and Spain were now nearly at 
sword's points — besides being ably commanded. As for 
the emigrants themselves, they were, perhaps, not the 
best in the world, yet in sufficient numbers for a begin- 
ning. They were no true colonists if they did not load 



16 



FIRST COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1585-8$ 



themselves with mucli useless trumpery. In short, 
Raleigh so threw himself into this effort that in seven 
short months after Barlow's return his colony was ready 
to hoist sail and away. 

Grenville weighed from Plymouth in April, 1585, 




ROANOKE ISLAND AND APPROACHES. 



touched at the West Indies in May, and sighted the 
Florida coast June 20th. Just escaping shipwreck at 
Cape Fear, 6 the fleet cast anchor at Wococon on the 2Gth, 
after a voyage of eighty days from port to port. 

Before deciding where to settle, an exploring party 
went over to the mainland, and travelled as far south as 
the Indian village of Secotan, where they met with good 



FIRST COLONY AT KOANOKE, 1585-SG 17 

treatment from the people. But because a silver cup 
had been stolen from them, the explorers cruelly re- 
venged it by setting fire to a village, on their return, 
so sowing an enmity for which the colonists afterward 
paid dear. This was the Spaniards' way of dealing with 
the Indians, and a very short-sighted way it proved. 
Raleigh was wiser, for he had strictly charged his cap- 
tains by all means to gain the good-will of the Indians ; 
but they thought they knew better than he, if indeed they 
gave the matter a thought beyond that of chastising the 
Indians in a way they would not soon forget. And the 
Indians did not forget, we may be certain. 

The northeast corner of Roanoke Island ' was finally 
chosen for a site, very possibly because it commanded 
the passages leading through into the great sounds, east 
and west, besides being safer from attack, and more eas- 
ily defended than a site on the mainland, where they 
would be only a handful against thousands. So here 
they set to work. This being settled, Grenville sailed 
for England, and Lane took charge as directed. 

These people were rather gold-seekers than colonists, 
in any true sense, for upon Barlow's report Raleigh be- 
lieved gold would be found among the natives here, as 
in Mexico. He therefore charged Lane to look for it. 
So, like De Soto before him, Lane forthwith set to work 
hunting for riches before he had even found a way to 
live, without aid, at Roanoke. 

After building a fort, one exploring party went north 
as far as a tribe calling themselves Chesepiacs/ living 
about the great bay of Virginia ; while another went up 
Albemarle Sound, to its head, and into both the Chowan 
and Roanoke Rivers, which fall into it, finding people 
everywhere, but no gold or silver. 



18 



F1KST COLOXY AT 



5LN0KE, 1585 86 



Lured on by idle tales, told to trap him to his ruin, 
and especially of a passage by this river to the great 



W%^ r ?*^-7^ 



' 



5t$e TOtill 



•nir 



II 



.Tiv 









INDIAN VILLAGE (UAlilOT). 






South Sea, Lane rowed up the Roanoke in search of it. 9 
As he advanced the Indians abandoned their towns, hid 



FIRST COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1585-86 19 

their corn, and fled before him, thus showing they could 
practise that kind of warfare as well as civilized na- 
tions. In three days' travel Lane did not see an In- 
dian or find a grain of corn. After toiling on against the 
current a hundred and sixty miles, but two days' food re- 
mained. Sensible, at last, that he had come on a fool's 
errand, Lane left it to his men to say whether they 
would go on or not. One and all chose to persevere, 
even if they should have to kill and eat their dogs. So 
for two days more they tugged at the oar, when, as 
night was closing round them, the loud blast of a horn, 
instantly followed by a flight of arrows, brought them to 
a standstill. The assailants fled, but the explorers hav- 
ing already " come to their dogges porridge," as they say, 
now thought best to make all haste back to Roanoke, 
empty-handed as they came. 

So long as the Indians could be depended upon to 
furnish them with food the settlers gave little thought to 
the morrow. But there came a day when this stay failed 
them. Of all their mistakes this was the worst, since it 
Jed them to neglect providing against what proved their 
greatest enemy and final ruin. Wingina had indeed 
given them ground to plant, but they found it hard to 
live till harvest-time. They describe their situation as 
like that of the horse starving in the stable with the 
grass growing outside, as the proverb has it. 

For some time the island Indians had shown them- 
selves bad neighbors ; and though they refrained from 
open enmity, they were shrewd enough to see that with- 
out their help the wasteful whites would soon come to 
want. In other words, it would be easier to starve them 
out than drive them off. So indeed it fell out, as vic- 
tuals soon ran so low in the settlement that Lane had to 



20 



FIRST COLONY AT 



•ANOKE. 1585-8(5 



scatter his men abroad to live as they could, though he 
knew they would be more easily cut off. 

But in this time of danger and distress, help came in a 
most unlooked-for way. The Indians were attacked by 
a deadly sickness, which exceedingly terrified them, the 
more because they believed the whites had sent it upon 

them in revenge for withhold- 
ing food, through the agency 
of some kind of charm or 
witchcraft. All Indians were 
firm believers in the power of 
an Evil as well as a Good 
Spirit, to whom their sooth- 
sayer, or medicine-man, offered 
up prayers — to one to spare 
them from sickness, famine, 
or trouble ; to the other of 
thanksgiving for health, plen- 
ty, or success in war. This 
medicine-man was consulted 
in all matters of importance, 
as the ancients consulted 
their oracles, and whatever 
he said usually guided their 
actions. 
For a season the Indians were thus kept in awe, but 
not long after one of them divulged a plot to kill the 
English, one and all. Wingina, the head chief, was to 
give the signal by striking the first blow. Lane spoiled 
this plan by falling upon the island Indians himself, and 
scattering them before they could put it in execution. 
Then crossing over to the main, where a still larger 
force was assembled, he also put these to rout with his 




L^^SSSfhg^J 



INDIAN CONJUROR. 



1585-86 21 

death-dealing musketry. By these bold acts the colo- 
nists were saved from destruction, though every Indian 
was now a declared enemy. 

Matters were, however, every day growing worse. 
Between them and all hope of rescue rolled the wide 
ocean. On one side was death by starvation ; on the 
other, death by violence. But as food must be had, at 
all risks, only strong parties could go out in search of it 
among the sands of the sea-shore or in the waters of the 
inlets. Strict watch was also kept for passing ships. 

While encamped on a neighboring island one of these 
foraging parties saw a great fleet crowding all sail for 
this shore. Thinking they were Spaniards coming to 
attack the settlement, the watchers hastened to give the 
alarm there. It proved, however, to be no Spaniard, 
but Sir Francis Drake, 10 whom the Queen had charged 
to call at Virginia, in order to give the colony any aid 
it might be in want of ; and never was aid more wel- 
come, we may be sure. 

Drake generously offered either to take off the colo- 
nists, or if they preferred to stay, to leave them victuals 
and a ship, till they could receive further help from 
home. Lane at first decided to remain, but the courage 
of the colonists failed them at the pinch, and all finally 
embarked on Drake's ships. 

Hardly had they left the coast when a supply-ship 
hove in sight of Hatteras. After making a vain search 
for the colony, she sailed home again. Only a fortnight 
later Grenville himself arrived with three ships. Find- 
ing Koanoke deserted, he left a few men to hold it till 
relief should reach them. So perished this colony, when 
help was almost within its grasp. If Lane could have 
held out just a little longer, perhaps Raleigh's efforts 



22 



FIRST COLON Y AMOANOKE, L585-86 






might not have gone for naught. But it seemed fated 

that one colony should rise only on the ruins of its 
predecessor. 



1 It is not clear whether Elizabeth 
or Raleigh proposed this name. 

- Sik KiciiakdUhknvii.le stood, with 
Drake and Hawkins, in the front rank of 
naval heroes. lie had helped Raleigh 
about his patent, and to fit out Barlow. 
An iron soldier, better fitted for war than 
the council. 

3 Ralph Lane had seen much service 
in the wars. If conquest only had been 
aimed at, he was the very man for the 
purpose ; for peaceful employments he 
was less fitted. 

4 John White's Drawings are in the 
British Museum (Sloaue Collection). 
Some were engraved for De Bry's Voy- 
ages, a rare work, printed in Dutch in 
1590. 

5 Thomas Hariot was a pensioner of 
Raleigh's, not as a needy dependant, but 
according to the custom of the time, 
when great men kept little courts of 
their own. Hariot printed " A Briefe 
and True Report of Virginia," London, 
1588. 

6 Cape Fear is named thus early, but 
whether by these colonists is not clear. 



The account says : " The 23d of June we 
were in great danger ot a wreck on a 
breach called the Gape of Peare." Some 

think this was Cape Lookout. 

; Roanoke Island is mostly low, 
marshy ground. It was the scene of a 
severe battle between the Onion and Con- 
federate forces in 1SC2. Lane calls it 
"My Lord Admiral's Island," referring 
to Grenville. 

8 Chesepiacs or Chesapeakes, cap- 
tain Smith says, were seated on a stream 
of that name, emptying into the great 
bay, which took its name from this peo- 
ple. But on White's map they are placed 
just inside of Cape Henry. Lane extols 
the country highly. 

9 Lane's views are thus given in his 
own words : •' The discovery of a gold 
mine, or a passage to the South Sea. or 
some way to it, and nothing else, can 
bring this country in request to be in- 
habited by our nation." llakluyt, iii., 
316. 

10 Drake was on his way home from 
a maraud in the West Indies, and had 
just burned St. Augustine, Fla. 



TOBACCO. 1 



" Tobacco is the worst of things, which they 
To English landlords as their tribute pay."— Waller. 



In general, it is the white man who has carried his 
vices among savage races, to their ruin. In the case of 
tobacco, the world owes its use, not to civilized man, but 
to the untutored savage. 

According to Camden, tobacco was lirst brought to 



TOMACCO 



23 






England by the Roanoke colonists, in Drake's ships. 
Probably those ignorant settlers little thought that this 
unregarded weed, which they had learned to smoke from 
the Indians, would prove the life of the colony at last, 
and one of the great commodities of a great country. 

That both Ra- 
leigh and Drake 
smoked tobacco is 
well known. When 
Hariot wrote, not 
only men, but 
" women of great 
calling," had taken 
up the habit. Two 
anecdotes of Ra- 
leigh's use of this 
fragrant weed have 
come down to us 
from his own time. 
One runs that, as 
Raleigh one day sat 
quietly smoking his 
pipe, his servant 
entered the room 
with a flagon of 
spiced ale, and, 
aghast at seeing 
smoke issuing from his master's mouth, as if he were on 
fire, instantly dashed the contents of the flagon in his 
face. The other story has more point, if not greater 
probability. Being in conversation with the queen, 
Raleigh asserted that he could exactly tell the weight 
of the smoke in every pipe of tobacco he burned. The 




TOBACCO PLANT. 



24 



TOJJAcTo 



cvo 



qneen at once laid a wager of twenty angels that lie 
could not. Raleigh first carefully weighed a pipeful of 
tobacco, and, after he had finished smoking it, then as 
carefully weighed the ashes. " Your majesty cannot 
deny," said he, " that the difference hath gone up in 
smoke." 

It is sad to think that tobacco may have been Raleigh's 
chief solace for all his failures in Virginia. Four vener- 
able yew-trees, under whose shade he is said to have 
smoked his first pipe, are still pointed out at Youghal, 
Ireland. A few steps farther on is the spot where the 
first Irish potato was planted by him. Of this invalu- 
able gift from the New World to the Old, Heine 2 quaintly 
said : " Luther shook Germany to its foundation, but 
Drake pacified it again ; he gave us the potato." 



i Tobacco, the name, is supposed to guage of St. Domingo. When Ealeigh 



have been first given by Hernandez de 
Toledo, who first sent it to Spain and 
Portugal about 1560. The generic name, 
"nicotiana," comes from Jean Nicot, 
ambassador of Francis n., in Portugal, 
who brought some tobacco from Lisbon 
and gave it to the qneen, Catherine de 
Medicis, as a valuable herb. Some think 
the name tobacco is derived from Taba- 
co, a province of Yucatan, where the 
Spaniards first found it ; others derive it 
from the island of Tobago; and Hum- 
boldt says it belongs to the ancient lan- 



brought it from Virginia, fields of it were 
already growing in Portugal. The " j uice 
of cursed hebanon," by which, accord- 
ing to Shakespeare, the King of Den- 
mark was poisoned, is supposed to have 
been the essential oil of tobacco : 
"Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 
With juice of cursed hebanon in a vial, 
And in the porches of mine ear did 

pour 
That leperous distilment." 
2 Heine, Heinricu, German poet, is 
here quoted. 



SECOND COLONY AT ROANOKE 1587. 



We may be sure that Ealeigh called his servants to a 
strict account for letting his colony fall to pieces. Men 
commonly lay the blame of their failures upon every- 
thing but themselves. Yet it was not so now with Lane 



15S7 25 

or Hariot, for they praised Virginia just as highly as 
ever. The fault, then, was not with the country. Most 
men would have given up the whole thing at once, but 
difficulties seem only to have strengthened Raleigh's 
purpose to succeed. So he at once set about fitting out 
a still larger expedition, over which he put John White 
as governor. 

Raleigh planned this colony with more form than be- 
fore, by naming twelve men who were to be White's ad- 
visers, and together be a corporation, like that of a city. 
He furthermore directed White to look up a situation 
in Chesapeake Bay, as the Carolina coast was condemned 
by all sea captains, who had been there, on account of its 
shallow waters and unsafe harbors. 

Instead of sending out only men, as before, of the one 
hundred and fifty settlers who went at this time, seven- 
teen were women. There was wisdom in this step, as it 
had been found that men soon grew discontented and 
homesick without companions of the other sex. To 
such as were married the new country became a home, 
instead of a place of exile from home. Then, too, the 
colonists were to have some share in ruling themselves. 
So, in this colony, we see some beginning toward plant- 
ing the seed of a commonwealth ; whereas Lane had 
merely commanded a sort of military post. 

Reaching Hatteras ' July 2d, White went on shore to 
look for the men Grenville had left. When he came to 
the fort no living thing w T as to be seen. Some few houses 
were still standing, but weeds grew rank and tall about 
them, and both they and the fort were fast going to de- 
cay. As the newcomers searched here and there, they 
came across the bones of a man bleaching among the 
grass. The sad story was easily read in these perishing 



I ?"'«' f t 



<y^O'i k i V'i' 37S^u Hap/ •*' r / •■ 



SS*7'?.{T^ 






<<J l©&l<* 











SECOND COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1587 27 

relics. The forlorn hope had either been all slain or 
driven off the island. And nothing more was ever 
heard of them. 2 

A strange chance led White's people again to this 
doomed spot, where their comrades had so miserably 
perished. Against his orders— and it would seem also 
against his own judgment — White was persuaded to re- 
settle Eoanoke. So the old houses were repaired. But 
the colonists soon had reason to repent this decision, for 
within a few days one of their chief men was found by 
the shore riddled with arrows. What they had sowed, 
the English were now reaping. It was they who now 
sued for peace. An embassy was sent to conciliate 
the Croatan Indians, their next neighbors. This was 
effected through their old friend and ally, Manteo, who 
on many occasions served them well and faithfully. It 
is well to keep this treaty in mind, as it would seem to 
account for what happened later on. 

Unfortunately, these colonists, too, seem to have 
thought that blood called for blood. A party therefore 
crossed over to the mainland, where their most implaca- 
ble enemies dwelt, and in the darkness of night fell upon 
those they found there, who proved, after all, to be their 
new-made allies from Croatan, the real offenders having 
made good their escape. 

It was now plain that the great body of Indians would 
use every possible means to destroy them, never engag- 
ing in open conflict, but, by harassing them day and 
night, force them out of the country. 

One bright spot shone out through the dark clouds 
around them, though we know not whether it was hailed 
with more joy or sorrow. This was the birth of a daugh- 
ter to Eleanor Dare. She was christened Virginia, as 



2S SECOND COLONY AT HOAXOKK. lf»K7 

seemed most fitting for the first-born child sprung from 
the soil. 

By and by want began to be felt in the colony. Con- 
trary to his own wishes, it seemed best that the governor 
himself should go to England in order to lay its condi- 
tion and needs before Ealeigh. White therefore sailed 
the last of August, reaching England in November, after 
a very long voyage. 

But now the dreaded Spanish invasion hung over all 
England like a storm-cloud. The whole island was up 
in arms. And when every Englishman was called to 
defend his own fireside, we may be sure few would be 
found to listen to appeals for succoring poor Virginia. 
If England fell, Virginia would be but a mouthful for the 
Spaniard. Yet in April, 1588, Raleigh sent White back 
with two small relief vessels, though both returned, 
stripped and crippled, when life and death depended on 
their haste. 

Ealeigh had now sunk forty thousand pounds in his 
Virginia schemes. Even he seems to have despaired at 
last. In March, 1589, he therefore assigned ,liis rights 
to Sir Thomas Smith and others, who strangely delayed 
sending out relief for a whole year. 3 When at last it did 
arrive, not a soul was found alive at Boanoke. The 
colonists had vanished ; the place was a solitude. From 
the rank growth that had sprung up in its midst it 
seemed to have been long deserted ; how long, no one 
could guess. Yet there was proof that some had es- 
caped ; for what they could not carry off, the fugitives 
had buried, and White found some of his own chests 
lying where they had since been dug up and rifled of 
their contents, probably by prowling savages. 

After close search the word Cuoatan was discovered 



SECOND COLONY AT ROANOKE, 1581 



29 



cut on a post of the fort, evidently as a token to those 
who might come after. For Croatan the rescuers accord- 
ingly made sail ; but never to reach it, for, beaten back 
by winds and waves, they gave over the search, and 
sailed away without more tidings of the lost colony. 



1 Hatteras is mentioned in the earli- 
est English accounts. It was therefore 
among the first localities to be known by 
its Indian name. 

2 Grenville's men are thought to have 
fled to Hatteras after being surprised by 
the natives, in revenge for Wingina's 
death. The Indians feigned ignorance 
of what had become of them. 

3 There was a tradition among the 
Croatan tribe that these colonists became 



incorporated with it, and went with it 
when it left the coast, first to follow the 
course of the Roanoke, and next across 
to some point on the Neuse. The colo- 
nists of 1608 heard of them, and tried in 
vain to rescue them. They were prob- 
ably held as captives and removed inland 
as a precaution against their escape. 
Dr. Stephen B. Weeks, of Johns Hop- 
kins University, thinks their descendants 
are still to be found in North Carolina. 



ni:- 



30 INDIAN WORSHIP 



INDIAN WORSHIP. 

Master Hariot tells some curious things about the 
religion of these Virginia Indians. He says that they 

believed in one great supreme Creator, who, in turn, 
made other gods to serve him ; that woman was created 
before man ; that the soul of man was immortal, and 
went either to eternal happiness or to a bottomless 
gulf filled with endless flames, according as he had lived 
a good or bad life. To prove this, the Indians told 
Hariot a story, which was a tradition among them, of 
two men who, after being dead and buried, had come to 
life again, each one bringing back strange tidings from 
the other world. 

After the first lay in the ground a whole day, the 
earth over him being seen to move, he was taken up 
alive. He told his wondering friends that he was near 
going to the bottomless pit, when one of the gods took 
pity on him, and gave him leave to go back to his peo- 
ple again, and teach them how to live so as to avoid 
such torments. The other man, taken up like tlie first 
after burial, said that, though his body was dead, he 
had travelled far in a long, broad way, where, on both 
sides, there grew more wondrous great trees and juicy 
fruits than he had ever seen before. Coming at last to 
a most exceeding fair house, he met his own father, long 
since dead, who gave him a solemn charge to return 
among his kindred, and show them how, by doing good, 
they might inherit all these blessings. 

Thus these ignorant savages had their belief in the 
return of the Son of Man ; only he was not a divine 
being, though divinely inspired. 



INDIAN WORSHIP 31 

Hariot tried to make them understand the white men's 
belief in the one ever-living God. He first showed them 
his compasses, telescopes, books, and manuscripts, with 
all of which they were wonder-struck. Having tried to 
reach their ignorant minds by means of these things, as 
so many proofs of what Christianity had done for his 
race, and could do for them if they would but listen, 
he then showed them his Bible as the most precious 
thing of all, seeing it was God's own Word. 

Conceiving this to be all the secret of the white men's 
superiority, the Indians would eagerly crowd round to 
touch, or kiss, or hug the sacred volume ; and some 
would even rub their bodies with it, as if they thought 
its virtues could be thus imparted to them like that of 
the loadstone to the dull iron. 

But all Englishmen were not Hariots. On the con- 
trary, it was the policy of the colonists, as of those who 
sent them, to make themselves appear to the Indians 
as superior beings : not simply men, but favorites of 
heaven, whom it was vain to think of harming. 



VIRGINIA REVIVED. 



Twelve years went by before any further step was 
taken to colonize Virginia. Most people thought it a 
foolish, if not criminal, waste of time, money, and human 
life. A few — and they, fortunately, were men of high 
purpose — still clung to the idea ; but they had not yet 
got over their defeat. 

Raleigh, however, had by no means lost all hope of 
finding his colony. In 1002 he sent one vessel to Yir- 



32 



VIRGINIA 



m 



\ IVKP 



ginia, which did nothing. Another, which belonged to 
him, but which either sailed without leave or disobeyed 
his orders, struck the New England coast, 1 where a cargo 
of cedar and sassafras wood, both then valuable commodi- 
ties in England, was secured. This ship carried out a few 
colonists, who, however, soon lost heart and went home. 
Her master was Bartholomew Gosnold, 2 an experienced 
sailor, who will presently be heard of again. 

This voyage, with that 
of Pring in 1603, and still 
more that of Weymouth 
in 1605/ did much toward 
putting new life into col- 
onization, as all went to 
prove that at whatever 
point the Virginian coast 
was struck it held out the 
same wonderful promise. 
Enough could not be said 
in praise of it. 

But with the new centu- 
ry great changes had come 
in. Elizabeth was now 
dead, and James I. was 
Drake was dead, Hawkins and Gren- 
ville were dead, Raleigh lying under sentence of death. 
With them died that romantic heroism which so long 
had defied the might of Spain. It really seemed when 
Elizabeth breathed her last as if the spirit of her age 
passed with it. 

James was known as " the wisest fool in Europe," the 
" crowned buffoon," and perhaps by other equally un- 
complimentary titles. It so happened, however, that 




King of England. 



VIRGINIA REVIVED 33 

while Elizabeth, great as she was, only gave to Virginia 
a name, James, fool or no fool, gave her a place in his- 
tory. 

Following close upon Weymouth's voyage, some of the 
first men in England determined to take up the lifeless 
Virginia enterprise again. All were men of mark ; some 
had had a little experience ; and one was chief justice of 
the realm. 4 In 1606 the king licensed them to begin two 
colonies, each to run a hundred miles on the coast, and 
as much more inland, but not to be settled within a hun- 
dred miles of the other. 5 The first colony became better 
known as the London Company, and the second as the 
Plymouth Company, from the places where the members 
mostly resided ; though neither name has any legal sanc- 
tion. As both owed their life to one and the same char- 
ter, they were to all intents one. The London Company 
was to follow up the old attempts ; the Plymouth Com- 
pany would begin entirely anew. 

These colonies were to be governed, first, by a su- 
preme body in England, called the Council for Virginia ; 
and, secondly, by a local council in the colony, subject to 
the first. As the controlling body was appointed by the 
king, he thus held all power in his own hands. 6 And, 
save the natural right all men have alike of defending 
their lives or property if attacked, little power remained 
with the colonists themselves. In the language of our 
day, the company was a joint-stock concern. Those who 
put in money were called adventurers ; those avIio went 
out at the company's cost were to be fed and lodged 
until they should have worked out the debt. 

To induce emigration, the company did just what men 
do now when it is desired to boom an enterprise. Truth 
was made to fit the object in view. They overpraised 
3 



34 VIRGINIA ^YIVED 

the country. They said that men could live there with- 
out labor. They hinted at gold as a thing not valued 
there. England was swarming with vagabonds, who 
would not work when at home, and who asked for nothing 
better than to go and pick up gold in the streets of the 
New World. The rich and timid were appealed to for 
aid to rid the cities of this dangerous class — to make 
Virginia the dumping-ground of the realm. Even the 
poet Drayton 7 wrote verses in praise of the good cause, 
of which this is a specimen : 

" Cheerfully at sea 

Success you still entice 
To get the pearl and gold, 
And ours to hold, 

Virginia, earth's only paradise." 

But there were skeptics, too, who did not fail to turn 
into ridicule all these fables about untold wealth. In 
the play of " Eastward Hoe," 8 brought out at this time, 
Scapethrift is made to say: " But is there such treasure 
there, Captain, as I have heard ? " And Seagull, who is 
supposed to have made the Virginia voyage, replies : " I 
tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper with 
us. . . . And for rubies and diamonds, they t^o 
forth on holy days and gather them by the seashore." 

Of the one hundred and forty-three emigrants whom 
the company got together, the greater part were, by all 
accounts, fit for anything but colonists. The company 
took, however, such as offered, good or bad, with seem- 
ing indifference. 9 Just as men, good for nothing else, 
are said to be food for powder, just so the refuse and 
outcasts of society Avere sent to die in Virginia. As one 
lot were mowed down by disease, another and another 



VIRGINIA REVIVED 



35 



were sent to take their places. The results speak for 
themselves. 

An obstacle now appeared to the company. The 
Spanish ambassador, Zuiliga, protested that these people 
had no right to settle in Virginia. That belonged solely 
to the subjects of Spain. Though James was now curry- 
ing favor with Spain, he declined to interfere. The col- 
onists could go at their own risk. He would neither 
own nor disown them. This course is a ready clew to 
James's real character. He was not brave, like Elizabeth. 
He was only a common despot, not a great one, like her. 
Fortunately, Spain had been too much crippled to think 
of making war at this time, though her will was good to 
have served these colonists as she had served the French 

in Florida. 

Now and here died Spain's extravagant pretensions to 
own all the New World. Had she been able to make 
them good, she would have done so now. Not to do so 
was to confess defeat. From that day forth Spain 
watched and waited, but dared not strike. 

Late in December three vessels sailed for Virginia in 
command of Captain Christopher Newport. 10 He carried 
sealed orders, not to be opened till Virginia should be 
reached, giving the names of the first council and their 
instructions. 11 Their authority would then begin and 
his own cease. 

By sailing in winter the colonists should have had a 
long season before them in which to get settled in their 
new home, yet, by taking the old route, so much time 
was wasted that the Virginia coast was not sighted till 
April 26th. Not less than two good months had thus 
been lost. Food for all that time had been spent to no 
purpose. The colony was thus the loser by just so 



36 



VIRGIN] \ i; 



[VED 



much Lost time, labor, and victuals. We must not 1<>s<> 
sight of this fact, for time was money then as always. 

Their first land-fall was named Cape Henry, in honor 
of the Crown Prince of England. Without knowing it, 
Newport was standing into Chesapeake Bay. Occident 
had thus led them to the place that Raleigh had destined 
White's ill-fated colony for. By chance they now held 




ENTRANCE to Chesapeake bay. 



the great gate leading into the very heart of their grant 
from the crown. After setting up a cross here IS with 
due ceremony, search began for a suitable place to moor 
their ships and land their goods in. They had been told 
to look for a site far enough up some navigable river to 
be out of danger from passing marauders. 

Not finding what they were seeking on that side of the 
bay, they crossed over to a point of land opposite, where 
deep water ran close to the short 1 . This discovery put 



VIRGINIA REVIVED 37 

them in such spirits that they immediately called that 
place Cape Comfort. Next day the ships were brought 
up to it ; and here they met with some Indians, with 
whom Captain Newport made friends, and by whom he 
was feasted till he could eat no more at their village of 
Kecoughtan, 13 near by, pipes and tobacco being handed 
round after meat, while the Indians danced for him. 
, Finding himself at the mouth of a great river, New- 
port set about exploring it. In one of their excursions, 
an exploring party broke in upon some wandering sav- 
ages who were busy roasting native oysters on the coals, 
but who fled at sight of the white men. The explorers 
brought sharp appetites, the oysters were done to a turn, 
so a hearty meal was made at the expense of the sav- 
ages. In this chance way was this delicious and valu- 
able shell-fish first discovered to the whites, who little 
thought it would one day become a source of greater 
wealth to them" than the gold they were so eager to 
find.) 

After spending some time in exploring the river ; in 
paying ceremonious visits to various chieftains, who were 
not over-friendly at first, but who showed the whites a 
sort of rude courtesy, notwithstanding their long speeches 
fell on dull ears — choice was made of a point of land pro- 
jecting out into the river from the east bank, where ships 
could be moored to the cypress-trees growing at the wa- 
ter's edge and thrusting their snake-like roots into the 
fat ooze of the bottom. More important still, the Indians 
could be shut out on the land side by merely stretching 
a stockade across the point, at the base, so that two 
quite important considerations were thus provided for. 
It is true that it Avas not just such a spot as they were 
directed to find ; but time was slipping away, and all were 



38 



VIRGINIA#feviVED 



no doubt impatient to get settled somewhere, and this 

seemed, on the whole, the best place they had so far 
seen. 

Here, then, on the fourteenth day of May, 1(507, they 
fell to work building their fort, first called by them James 
Fort, then Jamestown. Here was laid the corner-stone 
of the American nation, and this was its birthday. 

The peninsula lying between the York and James 
Rivers was thus the first ground to be explored and set- 
tled. It has the further 
distinction of being the 
battle-ground on which 
the colonists, led by a 
Virginia general, finally 
won their independence 
as a nation. 

While most of the 
colonists were em - 
ployed about the fort, 
a party went up the 
river as far as the falls, 
where the city of Rich- 
mond now stands. Thus 
far into the land they found that the tide ebbed and 
flowed. Here they raised a second cross, as if the 
country, in which they travelled only by consent of the 
savages, were already theirs. They called this noble 
river the James. 

On the fifteenth of June, James Fort was completed. 
Its form was a triangle, with half -moon or crescent- 
shaped outworks at each of the angles, on which guns 
were mounted. The base fronted the land side. This 
done, Captain Newport sailed for home, according to the 




FORT AT JAMESTOWN. 



VIRGINIA REVIVED 39 

tenor of his orders, leaving Jamestown but scantily pro- 
visioned against his return, which he promised would be 
in twenty weeks at most. 

By Newport the council wrote home their first letter. 
It is dated " at Jamestown in Virginia, June 22, 1607." 
In it they say : " We are set down eighty miles within a 
river, for breadth, sweetness of water, length navigable 
up into the country, deep and bold channel so stored 
with sturgeon and other sweet fish as no man's fortune 
hath ever possessed the like. . . . Within seven Aveeks 
we are fortified well against the Indians. We have some 
good store of wheat ; we have sent you a taste of clap- 
board ; built some houses ; spared some hands to a dis- 
covery ; our easiest and richest commodity being sassa- 
fras," Of this wood they shipped home about two tons 
by Newport, besides the clapboard mentioned in their let- 
ter. Here, at last, seemed fair promise of success. 

Their civil government being settled beforehand, it only 
remains to speak of the religious, and we shall then have 
done with the outward or formal make-up of this colony. 

When these people sailed, the Puritans were making 
some head against the Established Church of England, 
and were being persecuted. Worship according to the 
State church was therefore prescribed by the Virginia 
charter, no other being permitted. That church, there- 
fore, took early and deep root in the colony as part and 
parcel of its very being, and long distinguished it among 
the sister colonies, some of which were as strongly Puri- 
tan. A minister, Kev. Mr. Hunt, came out with these 
colonists, whom he served well and faithfully. 

1 The N. E. coast was struck in Mas- 2 Bartholomew Gosnold command- 

sachusetts Bay. See The Making of New ed one of the ships of Newport's fleet ; 

England, pp. 8-19, for an account of this he was also one of the council, 

voyage. 3 Weymouth's Voyage led to the 



40 



\ [RGINTAWEVIVED 



choice of the Kennebec lor the Second 
Colony's plantation. This also is treated 
of in The Making of Neva England, p. 30. 

4 This was Sir John Pop-ham. who 
became chiefly interested in the Northern 
Colony, referred to in Note 3. 

5 The First Colony was to choose 
between thirty-four and forty-one degrees 
of north latitude ; the second between 
thirty-eight and forty-five degrees. 

6 See the Charter in Charters and 
Constitution*, compiled by B. P. Poore. 
Washington, 1878. 

7 Michael Drayton was poet-laure- 
ate of England. 

8 " Eastward Hoe," written by Chap- 
man and Marston, assisted by Ben Jon- 
son, all of whom were put in prison for 
casting some slur on the Scots in the 
play. 

9 Virginia was long looked upon as 
the asylum for men who left their coun- 
try for their country's good, or whose 
pride or folly drove them abroad in 
search of means to repair their broken 
fortunes. Better could not be obtained 



in the beginning, as hope of gain was 
the animal ing principle with ail, high or 
low. The first colonists may be proper- 
ly classed as adventurers. 

lu Newport's Part in this colonial 
work is remembered in the name of New- 
port News. 

11 The Names were Edward Maria 
Wingfleld, John Smith. .John .Martin, 
Bartholomew Gosnold, John Katelille, 
and George Kendall. Wingfield was 
chosen president by the rest. 

u Setting up Crosses with the arms 
of the reigning sovereign attached was 
considered evidence of possession, as 
against all later comers as if the king 
had put his own seal upon the country. 
(ape Charles was named at about this 
time, from the other prince of the royal 
family. 

1 3 Kecoughtan is the same as Hamp- 
ton. 

14 The Virginia Oyster industry is 
chiefly carried on to-day in this very sec- 
tion of the James River, notably at Nor- 
folk. 



INDIAN ARCHERY. 



Of all primitive peoples the bow has ever been the 
favorite weapon. Yet none have ever been more skilled 
in its nse than the American Indians. Their bows were 
made of tough hazel, strung with leathern thongs ; their 
arrows of stout reeds or hazel wood, cut nearly four feet 
long, headed with sharp stones or horn, and feathered 
in a most skilful manner. The case or quiver contain- 
ing the arrows was slung across the right shoulder, so 
that the archer could draw forth a fresh arrow as fast 
as one was shot off. 

Their manner of attack was to creep upon their enemy 



INDIAN ARCHERY 41 

on all-fours, carrying their bows between their teeth. 
When they were come near enough to do execution, they 
fitted their arrows, leaped to their feet, and quickly let 
fly at their mark, which was seldom missed ; then they 
as quickly dropped out of sight again. 

Arrows made of reeds with stone points did not at 
first seem very dangerous things. At the same time, 
however, the English, who vaunted their own weapons 
so highly, were carrying the same round targets, made of 
tough bull's hide, and the identical spears, to which only 
the new name of pikes had been given, as the ancient 
Greeks had carried centuries before. By many a sharp 
lesson did they come to know the efficacy of a well- 
aimed Indian arrow. 

One day, when the fort was thronged with Indians, they 
were asked to show their skill with the bow. An English 
target was set up for them to shoot at. The colonists 
crowded round to witness the sport, one and all expecting 
to see the arrows strike and fall harmlessly off the shield 
to the ground. A warrior stood forth, carefully chose an 
arrow from his quiver, bent his bow strongly, and sent 
his arrow a foot through the target, to the wonder of all 
the beholders. Trickery was then resorted to, and a 
steel target put in place of the first. Of course, the 
arrow of the unsuspicious Indian was shivered in pieces. 
Upon seeing that they had been making sport of him, he 
ran off in a great rage. A 

For hand-to-hand fighting the Indians also carried 
heavy wooden war-swords, set at the edges with sharp 
stones. In the hands of those who knew how to use 
them these clumsy- looking weapons could inflict worse 
wounds than the keen-edged swords of the English. 

Often, while making boat excursions, the explorers 



42 INDIAN ARTIIERY 

would be shot at from the banks. They soon learned, 
therefore, to cover themselves, by placing a row of tar- 
gets round the bows of their boats, after the manner of 
the ancient Greeks and Norsemen, behind which they 
took shelter. Frequently, too, to cheat the Indians in 
regard to their numbers, the English would set up 
sticks, with hats on them, between the targets. The guns 
of that day were but clumsy affairs at best, yet such 
was the fear of them that one man with a gun could 
easily hold twenty Indians at bay. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10. 

After hearing of all this plenty it is amazing to read 
that by August the colonists were in actual want, and by 
September starving. Again, as in Lane's time, they were 
depending upon the Indians to feed them against New- 
port's return. They had, indeed, planted some corn, but 
the harvest could not be gathered till harvest-time. 
When what they brought with them was gone, want 
stared them in the face. Added to this they were now to 
learn that they had chosen an unhealthy place ; but it 
was too late to remedy that mistake. 

Newport left one hundred and four persons at James- 
town. In three months there were but sixty. Bad water, 
bad food (and not enough of that), bad lodgings, with 
standing guard night and day, brought on dysentery, 
dropsy, and malarial fevers. The contagion baffled the 
skill of Thomas Wottou, their surgeon. Three and even 
four died every day, and, under cover of the night, 
were dragged out of the pest-smitten fort to a hasty 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 



lfiOS-10 



43 



burial in unmarked graves. In August, Gosnold, the 
adventurous sailor to New England, fell a victim to the 
scourge. ( Things went from bad to worse. Famine ag- 
gravated Hhe suffering, and fear did the rest. Men 
drooped and died in their wretched hovels, untended 
and uncared for. Alarms from without could not rouse 
the sufferers from their despair. Master Percy 1 tells us 
that, at one time, not five 
well men could be mus- 
tered to man the forty 

There was yet one 
among them whose spirit 
was proof against even 
all this misery. This 
was Captain John Smith, 2 
who, thus far, had been 
slighted through envy 
or dislike, but who now 
showed himself the man 
for the crisis. As he was 
no courtier, his affairs did 
not speed in prosperous 
times. As he was fear- 
less and outspoken, he made many enemies. But he had 
met with many a rude experience in other lands, and was 
not the sort of man to give up in despair now. Men 
have called him vain, self-glorifying, a braggart. If he 
was a braggart, he was a brave one. If conceited, we 
must allow him some reason to be so. Censure may 
assail, but can never blot out what Smith did for Vir- 
ginia. What we know is that destruction menaced the 
colony. Smith saved it. And this will be in all time his 
ample vindication. 




CAPTAIN SMITH. 



11 



THE STRUGGLE 



i^u 



LIKE, K,OK-lO 



If, iii this time of sore distress, the Indians had not 
been brought to aid them, by fair means or foul, it is 
doubtful if one of the colonists would have been left to 
tell the tale. They knew there was plenty of corn 




DEPOSITION OF WINCJFIELD. 



among the Indians, yet those people now held aloof 
from them, and mocked their distress, hoping thus to rid 
the country of them. Smith was determined not to 
starve if food could be had. His way was to buy corn if 
he could ; if he could not buy it, to take it by force : but 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10 45 

to get it at all risks. ) If this conduct seems wrong, it may 
be said that starving men are seldom nice moralists, and 
that self-preservation is the first law of nature; but 
among the proverbs of Solomon there is one which says : 
"He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him ; 
but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth 
it." 

To make matters worse, in their misery the colonists 
fell to quarrelling among themselves. Suspecting that 
Wingfield 3 was planning to desert them, they now de- 
posed him, and put Ratcliffe, an indolent man, in his 
place. One man was hanged for mutiny. Discontent is 
not to be wondered at in men who believed themselves 
abandoned. Like sailors in a sinking ship, they could 
hardly be brought to exert themselves for their own 
safety. 

Ratcliffe willingly turned over to Smith the task of 
feeding the colony. Kecoughtan was nearest, the need 
pressing, so to Kecoughtan Smith went. When he first 
spoke with the Indians there, they mocked him with 
offers of a handful of corn for the swords and guns of 
his six or seven men. Smith then landed and drove 
them pell-mell from their village; beat them off when 
they tried to retake it, and finally put their great, hid- 
eous idol to ransom, for as much corn as he could carry 
away in his boat. Turning back to the Chickahominy, 4 
Smith met with equal success there. His decision had 
averted the threatened famine. 

Smith's next venture was less fortunate. While ex- 
ploring far up the Chickahominy River this winter, he 
was attacked, two of his men killed, and he himself taken, 
after making a brave defence. His captors straightway 
led him in triumph before Powhatan, who, after keeping 



46 



THE STI 



HIGGLE I'Oi; LIFE, 



1608-10 



him some time at Werowocomoco, B very honorably set 
him at liberty. Smith's own story of his release is more 
romantic. He says that he was first condemned to die 

but at the moment when the executioner's club was lifted 




POWHATAN HELD THIS STATE AND FASHION WHEN CAPTAIN SMITH WAS DELIVERED 
TO HIM PRISONER, 1607. 

to strike, Pocahontas, the king's twelve-year-old daugh- 
ter, threw herself upon his body, so saving his life. 

Whether this story be true or not, it is certain that 
from this hour Pocahontas became the fast friend of the 
English ; and many a time did she bring food to James- 
town, or secretly warn the settlers against her father's 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10 47 

treachery; for with winter want came again, and Pow- 
hatan was at best a faithless ally. Tims, starvation was 
kept off until Newport's return, in the winter, with sup- 
plies. He also brought out some colonists, who had 
scarcely landed when a fire broke out, by which all the 
buildings in the fort, including the storehouse, and all 
in it, were consumed. This was a heavy calamity to 
bear 'with all the rest. Newport's arrival, however, put 
some life into the enfeebled settlers, to whom this dis- 
aster might otherwise have been as a death-blow. Most 
of them lost what little they possessed. Master Hunt, 
their preacher, whose good words had often stilled their 
quarrels, lost all his books. Some wrote home to Eng- 
land, begging for cast-off clothing from their friends. 

Having restored order, Newport went with Smith, first 
to Powhatan's village, and then to his brother Opecan- 
canough's, 6 to trade for corn, in which errand they had 
good success. Newport then sailed for England, leaving 
the colony much better off than he had found it, and in 
muph better spirits, too, since hk coming showed that 
the company had not forgotten itJ 

Shortly after, the ship Phoenix came in with more col- 
onists, making a hundred or more in both ships. Smith 
spent most of this summer of 1608 in exploring the noble 
Potomac, 7 thus greatly enlarging the colony's resources 
for trade. At his return he found the settlers in revolt 
again, on account of Katcliffe's bad management, to 
which they would no longer submit. So Eatcliffe was 
removed, and Smith became president. Later on he dis- 
covered the Susquehanna Eiver, 3 making friends with the 
powerful people who dwelt on its banks, though Smith's 
report of their stature surely smacks of exaggeration. ^ 
Again Newport sailed into the James, with supplies, 



48 



THE STRUGGLE FOTTLIFE, 1608-10 



and seventy more people, among- whom were a gentle- 
woman and her maid, the first to come over to this col- 
ony. Not long after, Anne Burras, the maid, was 
married to John Lay don. We may be sure this first 
marriage was an eventful day to the colonists. So far 
the company had denied them the society of women. 
So far they were treated not as men, but more as soldiers 
sent to occupy an enemy's country. 

Newport also brought a basin, ewer, 
bed, and crown for Powhatan, from 
the council in England, who made 
much of securing his friendship, and 
thought to do it with gifts or flattery, 
or both. So, by their command, 
Newport went through with the farce 
of croAvning the savage ; though no 
entreaty could make him kneel down 
to receive the crown, nor could he 
help shaking with fright when a vol- 
ley was fired in his honor. Smith 
thought it all a piece of folly. Crown- 
ing Powhatan did not make him any 
more a king, or less a savage, or break 
his resolve to destroy the English if 
he could. They had sought to cheat 
him by pretending that they were come only as gold- 
seekers, traders, or sojourners, not as settlers ; so sus- 
pecting falsehood, the old king gave them craft for craft. 
It may well be questioned whether he ever made any 
proper use of the ewer and basin. 

The council also ordered Newport to find a lump of 
gold, a way to the South Sea, or Raleigh's lost colonists. 
They had tasted tobacco and hoped to find gold. He 




ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN, 
1026. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10 



49 



failed to do either after much searching, so that bubble 
was burst at last. J 

The company had now sent over about three hundred 
colonists. It had received next to nothing in return. The 
plan of government had led to anarchy, anarchy to wasted 
effort. The Virginia voyage, as it was generally spoken 
of, had grown decidedly unpopular. Those who had 
been sent home for bad behavior, or had stowed them- 
selves away in returning ships, explained that what with 
Indians, fevers, and famines, Virginia was not fit for 
Christians, though for savages it might be. Those again 
who had put in money were either angry or disgusted at 
receiving no returns. In fact, the props of the colony 
were tottering to their fall. 

The sagacious men in the company saw their mistakes. 
To remedy them it was decided to begin wholly anew. 
To this end a new charter 9 was asked for and obtained, 
granting far more ample privileges than the old in every 
way. The boundaries were extended to two hundred 
miles north and south of Point Comfort, so as to take in 
the newly discovered countries. Under this grant, too, 
the colonist was something better than a bond-servant, 
which was about what he had been under the old. He 
was to be better governed. One able and absolute 
governor was to reside in the colony. There was to be 
now but one council, namely, in England, which should 
appoint all colonial officers. The king gave up his for- 
mer exclusive control over this council to those whose 
means were invested in the enterprise. So far there was 

decided reform. 

Lord Delaware, 10 a distinguished nobleman, was made 
governor. Men of mark put their hands to the work. 
Moneys were solicited from the great London corpora- 
4 



50 THE STRUGGLE vm LIFE, L608-10 

tions or guilds. Appeals were made to the idle people 
of the cities to go out to Virginia and begin life over 
again. All the old arguments, and some that were new, 
were brought to bear to induce emigration. The state 
approved these measures because they promised to re- 
lieve it of a restless, and therefore dangerous, class. The 
cities were only too willing to get rid of their vagabonds. 
So in every quarter there was seen combined and ener- 
getic action, even if selfish interests did control it in a 
measure. 

By these means five hundred emigrants were obtained. 
As Lord Delaware could not go with them at present, Sir 
Thomas Gates was sent out to be acting governor in his 
stead, with Sir George Somers as admiral, and Captain 
Newport as vice-admiral of the fleet. As they could not 
agree as to who should have precedence, all three em- 
barked in the same ship. This novel way of settling 
their disputes came near ruining the whole enterprise, as 
we shall soon see. 

To meet the old difficulty, arising from the length and 
danger of the passage out, Captain Argall " was also de- 
spatched in a smaller ship to make trial of a shorter way 
across the Atlantic. In nine weeks this ship brought 
news to Jamestown of the solid relief that was coming. 
Captain Smith kept her till the expected fleet should 
arrive. 

At this time Smith's vigorous, yet just, way of dealing 
with the Indians had so far removed all fear of them that 
one party of settlers was living at the oyster banks, 
another at Point Comfort, and still another at the Falls, 
near a hundred miles from Jamestown, in perfect secur- 
ity. 

Meanwhile the fleet put to sea. One vessel carried 



THE STRUGGLE Foil LIFE, 1608-10 



51 



twenty women and children. Another took out six mares 
and two horses. One of the smallest, the little Virginia, 
had been built in the North Colony, in what is now the 
State of Maine, had crossed the Atlantic safely, and was 
now on her way back to the land of her birth, the happy 
herald of shipbuilding in these colonies. 




BUILDING THE PINNACE. 



A hurricane scattered the fleet. On the 11th of Au- 
gust four ships got into James Biver. Two more came 
in later, partly dismasted. One sank at sea, and the 
one which, by a strange chance, carried all three leaders, 
was driven upon the Bermudas. 12 Here, out of the wreck 
of their ship, they built two small barks, in which, after 
a ten months' detention, they set sail afresh for Virginia, 
with one hundred and forty men, women, and children on 
board. 

The arrival of the bulk of the colonists, without their 



52 THE STRUGGLE P#fc LIFE, 1608-10 

chiefs, proved <*i misfortune rather than a benefit, as the 
newcomers would neither acknowledge any other head 
nor be ruled by the old settlers. Smith was discouraged. 
His bitter enemy Ratcliffe had now come back. To cap 
the climax, Smith himself was disabled by an accident, 
which compelled his return to England. In him the col- 
ony lost an active, intelligent, and resolute leader, whose 
knowledge of Indian character had held those uncivilized 
beings firmly in check. At his going, Percy was left in 
charge. 

Utter lawlessness ensued. Want and sickness carried 
off the new arrivals by scores. Those who strayed 
abroad were cut off by the savages, who grew bolder 
every day. Eatcliffe, with thirty men, was thus decoyed, 
and all were slain, by Powhatan's men. 

This was the condition of affairs at Jamestown when, 
in May, 1610, one whole year after leaving England, 
Gates and Somers arrived there. Of four hundred col- 
onists, no more than sixty were alive. Gates were 
thrown down, ports flung open, houses in ruins. Even 
the palisade had been burned for firewood. In a word, 
the whole new emigration, save those now brought by 
Gates, had melted away. 

Instead of receiving aid and comfort from the colony, 
the newcomers were now called upon to give both. For- 
tunately, they had stored their two pinnaces with salted 
hog's-flesh, for their own use. But this would not last 
longer than sixteen days. Most reluctantly, for we have 
seen that they were not the men to give up while a ray 
of hope remained, Gates and Somers decided to break 
up the colony. In their joy at the thought of getting 
away from this doomed spot, some of the colonists would 
have set the town on fire, if not prevented, and sailed 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10 



53 



away by the light of its flames. Perhaps we get our 
most striking impression of what the colony had suffered 
from the fact that three little pinnaces could carry off the 
whole of what it had taken so many ships to bring. 

But Virginia was not to be thus deserted after all. 
While these things were taking place up the river, Lord 
Delaware himself had just cast anchor at Point Comfort 
with three ships. The colonists kept an outpost on shore 
there to watch for coming ships. From its officer Lord 
Delaware heard what had happened above. "Much cold 
comfort," he calls it. He instantly sent his long-boat to 
stop the pinnaces. They were met and turned back at 
Mulberry Island, and that same night anchored again at 
Jamestown. 



i Master George Percy's "Dis- 
course " is in Hakluyt, IU. 

2 Captain John Smith's reputation 
for veracity has been assailed ; and some 
writers have not hesitated to discredit 
him, even while admitting the story of 
Pocahontas to their pages. I find much 
of his own story of his colonial work sup- 
ported by other authorities. My own 
conclusion is that of all those who wrote 
of Virginia, at that day, Smith carried the 
most practical common sense in his head. 

s Wingfield was suspected of a de- 
sign to seize the'r pinnace, and make off 
with it to Newfoundland. 

4 The Chickahominy waters the mid- 
dle and upper sections of the Virginia 
peninsula. It has become celebrated as 
the line of military operations 18G2-G4. 
It enters the James at Dancing Point, 
about eight miles above Jamestown, so- 
called from a certain ghostly tradition 
current among river men. 

5 Werowocomoco, variously spelled, 
was situated on the Pamunkey, now 
York, River. 

6 Opecancanough's country lay along 
the Chickahominy. 



7 The Potomac gets its name from 
the nation inhabiting its banks. It is 
uncertain just how far Smith ascended it. 

8 The Susquehanna is similarly 
named. Smith described the people as 
giants, dressed in the skins of wild 
beasts, and armed with French hatchets, 
which must have come from Canada. 

9 For charter of 1609, refer to 
Poore's " Charters and Constitutions." 

10 Lord Delaware's name became 
permanently attached to the bay, river, 
and colony next north of the Chesapeake. 
See Delaware. 

11 Samuel Argall, subsequently gov- 
ernor of Virginia, is the same person who 
broke up the French settlements at Mt 
Desert, Me., in 1613 ; who kidnapped 
Pocahontas, and did many other bold 
and lawless acts, for which he has been 
justly censured. 

12 The Bermudas, so called from 
John de Bermudas, came later within 
the Virginia charter, and hence were 
sometimes called Virginiola, or Little 
Virginia. Sir Thomas Gates's shipwreck 
is thought to have given Shakespeare the 
idea of his play " The Tempest" (1611), 



54 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, 1608-10 



in which the "etill-vex'd BermootheB" value, as a vantage-ground from which 

arc referred to. From Sir George Bom- to annoy the Spaniards was quickly per- 

ers, who died at the islands, they took eeived. In 1612 the Virginia Company 

tlic name of Somen' Islands, hut the old sold the islands to a colony, 
name was gradually resumed. Their 



THE ERA OF PROGRESS, 1610-24. 

"Mother of states, and unpolluted men." — Lowell. 

SPEAKING of the bad news that met him at his arrival, 
Lord Delaware said : " If it had not been accompanied 
with the most happie news of Sir Thomas Gates, his ar- 
rival, it had binne sufficient to have brooke my hart." 

He found Jamestown in a most wretched state. The 
colonists had killed and eaten all their live stock, even 
to the horses ; the country round had been swept clean ; 
the Indians were hostile ; and gaunt want seemed stalk- 
ing only one step behind them. 

For the first time, perhaps, he clearly realized the 
greatness of the task before him. But there he was at 
the post of duty, with the hopes of the company resting 
upon his wisdom and strength of character. Could he 
shrink from it like a craven ? All power was given him. 
He could be a despot, or he could be a mild, yet firm, 
ruler. 

But order is no less the first law of men, than of nat- 
ure. The new governor set everyone to work. To 
husband his own stock of oatmeal and peas the river was 
daily dragged for fish. Somers, "the good old gentle- 
man," went back to the Bermudas for a cargo of live 
hogs, which had once before saved the lives of his com- 
panions. Two small forts, named Henry and Charles, 



THE ERA OF PROGRESS, 1610-24 



55 



after the two princes, were begun at Point Comfort, and 
ground was broken to plant there, under their protection. 
Martial law was put in force. The code was severe, but 
was, perhaps, none too strict for men whom Delaware 
says no punishment 
could keep "from their 
habitual impieties or 
terrify from a shameful 
death." 

Though cast down at 
first, as we have seen, 
Lord Delaware's first 
report to England was, 
on the whole, favorable. 
Gates and Newport ar- 
rived there in Septem- 
ber, with the first news 
of the wreck at the Ber- 
mudas. Gates, too, like 
all who knew Virginia 
truly, urged the com- 
pany not to relax its 
efforts. 

Lord DelaAvare wrote 
home what Smith had 
written before him, al- 
most his very words. 
It had been well if bet- 
ter heed had been paid 

to his advice. They would not settle this country, he 
told them, without " men of quality, and painstaking 
men of arts and practices, chosen out and sent into the 
business." The company could only plead its want of 




LOWER JAMES SETTLEMENTS. 



r»6 



money to get them. In a word, money was the prime 
lever of this as of every enterprise. 

Within the year the governor fell sick, and had to re- 
turn to England. Meantime, Sir Thomas Dale, who had 
been in the service of the Netherlands, and now had 
leave of absence to go to Virginia, was fitted out with 
three ships, carrying three hundred men, and some kinc 
and goats, and domestic fowls. Dale was called Knight- 
Marshal, by which we understand he was to have the 
military command under Lord Delaware. In his ab- 
sence Dale became the head of the colony. He found 
the colonists fallen into their old ways. Nobody worked. 
Jamestown was become a fool's paradise again, where 
no thought was taken beyond the wants or pastimes of 
the hour. 

Dale's energy soon restored order. Looking at things 
as a military man would, he was full of projects for sub- 
duing the Indians, and so making it safe to plant other 
settlements abroad, instead of living cooped up, as they 
now did, in one or two forts. To this end he pro- 
posed the sending over of all the criminals then lying 
under sentence of death in the jails of England. This 
would be equivalent to turning Virginia into a penal 
colony. 

In August Sir Thomas Gates followed Dale out with 
three hundred more settlers, as governor. With good 
reason the leaders had long been dissatisfied with James- 
town, and Dale had been looking up a better site to re- 
move to. This was found at a point some fifty miles 
higher up, on the same side as Jamestown, since known 
as Dutch Gap. 1 The most important step yet taken by 
the colony itself was now begun. With three hundred 
and fifty picked men, Sir Thomas Gates made a settle- 



THE ERA OP PROGRESS, 1610-24 57 

ment there, to which he gave the name of Henrico, 2 in 
honor of Prince Henry. In this river, at least, the reign- 
ing family had been most liberally remembered. 

Some of Gates's men were veteran soldiers from Flan- 
ders, who were much relied on, should the Spaniards 
pay the colony a visit, as there was reason to fear, from 
the fact that three Spanish spies had been taken at 
Point Comfort. By looking at the map, it will, at once 
be seen that, at Henrico, the colonists might easily bar 
the river to an enemy's shipping, because at that point 
the James nearly doubles on itself. It was, therefore, 
strong by nature against a fleet, and Gates soon made it 
strong against the Indians, by a stout palisade. 

In this vicinity a group of flourishing settlements pres- 
ently arose. About Christmas time Dale crossed over 
to the Appomattox country, drove off the Indians, and 
settled another plantation between the Appomattox and 
James, called New Bermudas, after the islands just an- 
nexed to Virginia by the charter of 1612. 

All these settlements may be looked upon as military 
encampments. Lands obtained by force could only be 
held by force. A day of reckoning was sure to come 
whenever the Indians felt strong enough to try to re- 
cover their own again. And they were now but biding 
their time. 

Powhatan's enmity now received an effectual check. 
This subtle savage was as bold and defiant as ever, and 
just as treacherous. When the English were weak he 
was ready to assail them ; when strong he could be artful 
and temporizing ; but the English found there would be 
no true peace with him unless they could devise some 
means to get him in their power, or, at least, get such 
a hold upon him as would be a pledge for his good faith. 



58 



THE ERA OF P 



In Argall the colonists had a crafty and unscrupulous 

tool, who speedily brought Powhatan to terms. It was 
done in this way. Argall heard that the princess Poca- 
hontas was visiting the king of Potomac. He instantly 
laid a plan to carry her off as a hostage for Powhatan's 

good behavior. By 
means of promises 
or threats the king of 
Potomac's brother 3 
lent himself to the 
plot. Pocahontas was 
easily enticed on 
board Argall's vessel, 
only to find herself a 
prisoner. 

The English kept 
Pocahontas for a year. 
Meantime, Powhatan 
tried to redeem her 
by sending back some 
captives, but the Eng 
lish knew her value 
too well, and would 
not give her up. At 
the end of the year 
she willingly took upon herself other bonds to be the Eng- 
lishmen's life-long friend, by making their God her God, 
and their people her people. She had been converted, 
and she had been wooed for a wife. She w r as first bap- 
tized by the name of Kebecca, and then married to Mas- 
ter John Kolfe, 4 a young Englishman, with whom she 
went to live at Henrico, or, to be more precise, at Va- 
rina. 5 




POCAHONTAS. 






THE ERA OF PROGRESS, 1610-34 



59 



In truth, as Pocahontas had never been other than a 
friend to the English, to kidnap her seems but a poor 
way of requiting the many favors she had done them ; 
vet as it may be that the colonists believed it to be a 
matter of life and death with them, we hear of no voice 




3|pfe 



TOBACCO SHIPS. 



raised against it-so far as Powhatan was concerned 

there was peace. 

Seeing these things come to pass the warlike Chicka- 

hominies also sued for peace. Gates then went back to 

England, leaving Dale in sole command. It had been 
found that the cod-fishery to the north of Cape Cod was 
better than Virginia would afford. While on a voyage 
there Argall broke up a French settlement at Monnt 
Desert Island. Dale sent him back to complete his 



80 THE ERA OF PR^RESS, 1G10-24 

work by destroying Port Royal, another French settle- 
ment of some years' standing, situated in what was then 
called Acadia, but now better known as Nova Scotia. 

Up to this time little is heard of tobacco, though we 
know that more or less must have been sent home, be- 
cause the importation of it was denounced in 1011, in 
the House of Commons, for pretty much the same rea- 
sons as it has been ever since, namely, as tending to bad 
and extravagant habits. 

We may now look at Virginia a moment as she ap- 
peared to unfriendly eyes, in short, to a Spaniard. Don 
Diego Molina c was one of those Spaniards who had been 
taken prisoners. In spite of the close watch kept upon 
him, he seems to have found means to send his employ- 
ers a report upon the state of the colony in the year 
1613. " Last year," he begins, " there were seven hun- 
dred people here, and only half remain, because the hard 
work and scant food kills them and increases their dis- 
content, seeing themselves treated like slaves, with great 
cruelty. Hence, a good many have gone to the Indians, 
who have killed some ; others have gone out to sea, K ing 
sent out to fish, and those who remain do so by force." 

Having described the colonists, Molina goes on to de- 
scribe the settlements : " At the entrance (to the river) 
there is a fort ten hands high, with twenty-five soldiers 
and four iron guns. Half a league from here there is 
another, but smaller, with fifteen soldiers, without artil- 
lery. There is still another smaller one, all of which 
are inland, half a league off, against the Indians. 1 ' Don 
Diego contemptuously adds that these forts (one at 
Point Comfort and two at Hampton) were such paltry 
affairs that a kick would level them with the ground. 

" Twenty leagues higher up," he continues, " is this 



THE ERA OF PROGRESS, 1610-24 



61 



colony (Jamestown) with one hundred and fifty persons 
and six guns. Twenty leagues higher is another, to 
which all of them will be taken when the time comes, 
because there they put their hopes. Here there are a 
hundred more, and among them, as among the people 
here, there are women, boys, and field-laborers, so that 
there remain not quite 
two hundred effective 
men, badly disci- 
plined." 

In three years more 
the colony had greatly 
expanded. The young 
giant was beginning to 
stretch his limbs. Be- 
sides Jamestown and 
Kecoughtan and Hen- 
rico, there were new 
settlements at Bermu- 
da, at West, and at 
Shirley Hundreds, as 
every hundred settlers 
were called, with a 
captain appointed over 

each, and a minister in most of them. There was no 
more talk of scarcity, as the colony now raised more than 
enough for its own wants. Its real weakness lay in the 
wide separation of the two principal groups of settle- 
ments. In time of danger they could afford each other 
little assistance. 

Up to the year 1616 about sixteen hundred and fifty 
persons had been sent to Virginia. Dale and Molina 
agree that only three hundred and fifty were left ; of the 




UPPER JAMES SETTLEMENTS. 



62 THE ERA OF VVA 

remainder some, doubtless, had gone 4 back to England ; 

and some died on the voyage out. But the great ma- 
jority had fallen in the battle with famine, disease, or 
Indians. 

Dale returned to England in 161G. He said that he 
had left the colony in great prosperity and peace. His 
had been an iron rule, under which men groaned, even 
while they acknowledged the master-hand. Despotic 
he may have been, nay, was ; yet, at last, Virginia stood 
on a solid foundation. A new body had risen from the 
ashes of the old. The company had asked him for a 
miracle, and he had performed one. 

With Dale went Pocahontas, Rolfe, and Molina, the 
prying Spaniard. Yeardley 7 took charge of the colony 
meantime. His rule was mild and uneventful. Tobacco 
culture rapidly increased. Except a quarrel with the 
Chickahominies, peace was unbroken. After a year 
Yeardley was superseded by Argall, who had been active 
enough if his lawless propensities could have been re- 
strained, but he was more than half a buccaneer and 
wholly unfitted for the pursuits of peace. It was de- 
cided to remove him, but Lord Delaware's death, while 
on his way back to resume charge of the colony, left Ar- 
gall in office until another appointment could be made, 
and before Yeardley could arrive to supersede him, Ar- 
gall quitted the colony in disgrace. 

By the company's order Governor Yeardley now called 
upon the several plantations 8 and hundreds to send dele- 
gates to Jamestown, with the view of giving one voice to 
what concerned the public good. Each county and hun- 
dred sent two. They met July 30, 1019, in the little 
church there, so forming the first legislative body in the 
colonies. It was the first step, too, toward popular gov- 



1610-24 63 

ernment in Virginia, though only a step. This assembly 
took the name of Burgesses, or freemen of boroughs, by 
which title they continued to be known while Virginia 
was a colony. 

Though but the creatures of the company, the Bur- 
gesses could make and execute their own local laws, by 
means of which they freed themselves from the odious 
one-man power. They had also the right of petition. 
There was much even in being able to meet, discuss, and 
formulate their wants or grievances. The colony now 
had what it never had before — a voice. And that voice 
became a power in the land. 

Lands were allotted and moneys raised for founding 
a college, partly for missionary work, partly for the 
benefit of the colony. Iron-works were begun at Falling 
Creek, in its aid. But the colonists took little interest 
in projects for improving the Indians, so these benevo- 
lent schemes fell to the ground. 

Twice had the city of London, jointly with the com- 
pany, sent out a hundred poor boys to swell the colony. 
About this time a number of young women, of humble 
birth, but good character, were sent over to be sold to 
such of the planters as would take them for wives, in 
payment of their passage-money, the price to be paid in 
tobacco. 

In 1620 a Dutch ship arrived at Jamestown from 
Africa with twenty negroes, who were sold to the colo- 
nists, thus beginning negro slavery in the English colo- 
nies. These Africans made excellent field-laborers, as 
they could bear the summer heats when the whites could 
not. Moreover, they were docile and easily and cheaply 
maintained. 

By a general rising of the Indians in 1622, long known 



04 



THE ERA OF PROCESS, 1010-^4 



as " The Massacre,"' until one still more dreadful cast it 
into the shade, prosperity was checked for a time. Ope- 

ng. It was managed with In- 



cancanough led this 



dian secrecy and cunning. The settlers were lulled in 
security. The blow fell swiftly, unexpectedly, merci- 




DESERTED HOMES. 



lessly. Separated as they w r ere into two large bodies, 
and scattered about again in numerous farms, the settlers 
fell an easy prey to their bloodthirsty assailants. James- 
town was warned in season, and escaped the massacre, 
but in the other settlements three hundred and forty- 
seven persons were slain. 

The completeness of this massacre was owing to the 
desire of planters to hold large tracts of land for raising 



THE ERA OF PROGRESS, 1610-24 



65 



tobacco. The larger these holdings the more remote the 
settlements. Each planter, with his own house and farm 
servants, lived isolated from his neighbors. This made 
it possible to cut off one from the other. Yet in spite 
of the lesson of the massacre, the plantation system, by 
which every planter became a little potentate, continued 
to be the prevailing feature of Virginian life. 

Though the English took swift revenge, it was long 
before the colony fully recovered its lost ground. In the 
very next year the king took away the company's charter, 
thus making the colony again dependent upon the crown, 
or a royal colony, in which condition it remained, except 
while England was a commonwealth, until its subjection 
to princes and potentates was severed for all time. 



1 Dutch Gap, so called, according to 
Bishop Meade, in his Old Families and 
Churches of Virginia, on account of evi- 
dences of a canal begun here, across the 
narrow neck of Farrar's Island, by the 
first Dutch settlers, but not completed. 
It was nearly opened again in 1804, to 
facilitate the operations against Rich- 
mond, and finished in 18T9, so saving a 
circuit of seven miles. 

2 Henrico is now the name of the 
county covering the same territory, and 
also including the city of Richmond. 
Though of large intentions, the town 
was abandoned after a few years. 

3 Japazaus, the king's brother, was 
won over, after appeals to his friendship 
had failed, by the promise of a copper 
kettle. 

4 John Rolfk was at one time secre- 
tary of the colony and a leading planter. 

5 Varina is said to have been given 
this name from a place of the same name 
in Spain, where tobacco, of a similar 
kind was grown. It was for a long time 
the county seat of Henrico. 

6 Molina's despatch is in Mr. 
Brown's Genesis of the United States. 



Spanish intrigues against Virginia may 
have hastened the overthrow of the com- 
pany, for James's ears were always open 
to them. 

7 Sir George Yeardley was govern- 
or in 1616 ; 1619-21 ; and again in 1625. 

8 Plantations. The word was first 
used much in the same sense as colony 
is now used ; not as restricted to the 
holdings cf individuals. Virginia, for 
instance, was a plantation. 

9 The Massacre of 1622 took place 
while Wyatt was governor. Some twenty 
or more places are enumerated in the 
accounts of it. Their relative impor- 
tance is indicated to some extent by the'r 
losses ; thus at Sheffield's Plantation 15 
were killed ; at Henrico's Island, 17 ; at 
Berkeley Hundred, 17 ; at Westover, 33 ; 
at Wyanoke, 21 ; at Martin's Hundred, 
79. This last was seven miles from 
Jamestown, or James Cittie, as it had 
come to be called in the colony. In 1777 
there was but one family residing in 
Jamestown to show for all the lives and 
money spent in building it up. In the 
early history of Virginia it is merely a 
fort, to hold the ground. 



II. 

THE ENGLISH IN MARYLAND. 



THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1634. 

THE founding of Maryland is largely the history of a 
family — of the Calverts. For over a hundred 
years a Calvert was at the head of this colony. AVlien 
one died another took his place. Therefore, when the 
story of these Calverts is told, all is told, for besides be- 
ing next to absolute rulers they were the owners of the 
soil as well. 

For faithful service, in various public employments, 
George Calvert was made an Irish peer by James I., 
with the title of Lord Baltimore. We do not know, nor 
is it very material to discover, what first turned his at- 
tention to colonization. The idea may have dwelt in his 
mind a long time, or it may have grown up there all at 
once. He had some share in the Second Virginia Com- 
pany, and probably knew its history by heart. He had 
become a Catholic, which was as good as giving up pub- 
lic life in Protestant England. That this step did not 
prevent his holding the good will of his sovereign, we 
know, because what James did for any Catholic would 
be certain to give offence to a large part of his subjects. 
And all of Baltimore's projects ran counter to the views 
of other colonizers, who strongly demurred against send- 



THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1634 67 

ing out Catholics to the new colonies at all, let alone 
making rulers of them. 

Let us give an instance of this feeling. When Lord 



EENNS.Y.LVANIA LINE 



EARLY MARYLAND SETTLEMENTS. 




Delaware was about to set sail for Virginia, a sermon 
was preached to him, by a leading London clergyman, in 
which his lordship was entreated, or rather warned, to 



THE FOUNDING OiniAKYLAMi, 1634 



" suffer no Papists ; let them not nestle there ; nay, Let 
the name of the Pope or Poperie be never heard of in 
Virginia." They were heard of in Virginia, and very 
soon too. This fear that English Catholics might look 
to the colonies for that freedom of worship denied them 
at home, puts us in touch with the intolerant spirit of 
that age. 

But the smothered fires of religious hate were about 
to break forth, that were to deluge the land in blood. 

We know that Baltimore 
was wise, calm, prudent; 
why not far-sighted, too? 
He may have felt some 
warning of the coming 
storm. At any rate, he 
decided to cast his lot in 
the New World. 

His first move surprises 
us. In truth, it was a 
strange choice. We find 
him following on in the 
old, abandoned path of 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and in the delusions of his 
time, instead of profiting by the better judgment of 
Baleigh and his followers — taking a backward step, as it 
were. Back in 1620, the year that the Pilgrims were 
making their way to bleak New England, Baltimore had 
bought up a grant at Newfoundland. In 1G23 the king- 
gave him a royal patent, with almost unlimited privileges. 
Afterward Baltimore went out himself to take his first 
practical lesson as ruler of a colony on the spot ; but 
between the climate and the French he was forced to 
admit he had come on a fool's errand, 




HENRIETTA MARIA. 



THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1334 



69 



He then sailed to Virginia, trusting to the king's favor 
for permission to transfer his colony to some unsettled 
part of that country. But cold welcome awaited him 
at Jamestown. The Virginians suspected his errand, 
resented what they felt to be doubly an intrusion, on 
account of his religion, and adroitly got rid of him by 
calling on him to 
swear loyalty to the 
king, as the only 
true head of the 
church. As no 
Catholic can do that 
without renouncing 
his faith, Baltimore 
was driven to leave 




CECILIUS CALVERT. 



the colony. 

This episode in- 
forms us fully as to 
the temper of Vir- 
ginians toward Ro- 
manists and intru- 
ders. None of that 
faith were wanted. 

Back to England 
Baltimore went, 

probably with the fixed purpose of returning in triumph, 
as we next find him in possession of a grant of lands, 
lying on both shores of Chesapeake Bay, and taking in 
most of the peninsula between that bay and the ocean. 
But before his patent was sealed Lord Baltimore died, 
so that his son's name was substituted for his in the 
instrument. This was in 1632. 

The country thus granted was named Maryland, in 



70 THE FOUNDING < >1#8W AUY LA XI), 1634 

honor of the French queen ' of Charles I., now king, and 
was thus the second colony to be called after a queen of 
England. 

We have seen that neither failure nor rebuff could 
turn Lord Baltimore from what he had once set his 
mind on ; and his son and heir, Cecilius, seems to have 
inherited what we may call this Calvert trait. 

In a lesser way, his patent gave Calvert as much 
power as a king, and much more than some kings enjoy 
— saving only the title. It was to be his colony and his 
people. Yet he was much more than a great landlord, 
because the colonists could have no more liberty than he 
chose to yield them. lie might truly say, " I am the 
State." He could have his own flag and coin. The 
colonists were, indeed, called freemen, and could meet 
for the purpose of assenting to Calvert's laws, or of pro- 
posing others of their own making, but he could set 
them aside at his own will and pleasure, just as if Mary- 
land had been a royal colony and he king of England. 
In other words, they had the name without the deed — 
the shadow without the substance. Lands, waters, 
trade, power to punish or pardon, all belonged to the 
proprietor. The good of the colony rested, therefore, 
solely on his wisdom to govern. He was absolute lord- 
proprietor, and is properly so called. Yet, in many 
ways, this government by one man was better than that 
by many, as was shown in Virginia. 

Having to contend with strong opposition at home 
from the old Virginia Company, Calvert sent out his 
younger brother Leonard as governor, with three hun- 
dred and twenty colonists, of whom twenty are described 
as gentlemen, and the rest as laborers. These gentle- 
men, we may be sure, would fill all the offices. With 






THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1634 



71 



them went two Jesuit missionaries, but no ministers of 
any other sect. Their two vessels, quaintly called the 
Ark and the Dove, entered the Chesapeake late in Feb- 
ruary, 1633, and, after looking into the Potomac, came 
to anchor under an island, presently named St. Clem- 
ents, 2 on which the colonists first landed and began 
work, March, 1634. Meantime, signal fires had been 




IN THE CHESAPEAKE. 



lighted by the Indians in every direction, to give warn- 
ing of the white men's coming. 

Leaving the colonists and ship here, Calvert next 
went up the river to visit the king of the country, at his 
town called Piscataway, in order to find out this king's 
disposition. About five hundred men, with their bows, 
stood with their chief on the shore. "When Calvert 
asked him whether he would be willing to have the Eng- 
lish settle there, his wary reply was that " he would 



72 THE FOUNDING OI^I AKYLANI), 1034 

neither bid him go nor stay, but that he might do as he 
pleased." 

Calvert seems, however, to have been satisfied with 
even this cold welcome, as he began looking for another 
situation, St. Clements being too small for a settlement. 
They found the site of an Indian village most to their 
liking; and as the native owners were willing to remove, 
the governor struck a bargain with them for wigwams, 
corn-fields, and all, so getting temporary shelter, as well 






^Mm^^m^^xm 



mfimmmm^ 



$ ?, 



FIKST LANDING-PLACE. 



as ground ready cleared and tilled for planting. A 
treaty of peace was also made with these neighbor Ind- 
ians. 

The site of this settlement lay on the banks of a small 
stream, flowing into the Potomac, about twelve miles 
from its mouth, for which St. George's Island is the 
landmark, and on the eastern shore of that river. It 
presently took the good Catholic name of St. Mary's, as 
the stream did that of St. George's." The two mission- 
aries set up their first chapel in a wigwam. 

All this was the work of one man, laboring unaided. 



THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1634 73 

So far as is known, there Avere no appeals to the public 
for help. Some of the colonists, indeed, came out at 
their own expense, or as contributors to the common 
stock, but most were probably indented men, who, in re- 
turn for the cost of feeding and transporting them, were 
to work a certain term, say live years, for the proprietor, 
and then be freemen, or full citizens. 

Coming, as they did, at a most delightful season of the 
year, finding much of the hard work incident to getting 



ST. GEORGE'S ISLAND, MD., OFF ST. MARY'S. 

settled ready done to their hands, these Maryland set- 
tlers were not called upon to battle with want, disease, or 
savage ferocity, like the Virginians ; yet before they could 
get accustomed to the climate there was much sickness. 

They had been strictly charged to keep the peace 
toward their Virginia neighbors, at least for a year, and 
for good reason, too, since the Maryland patent took in a 
large tract of country first granted to Virginia, and first 
explored by Smith and Argall. Of itself this was quite 
enough to breed bad blood between them. Moreover, 
Baltimore knew that the Virginians would look upon 
him as a trespasser, patent or no patent, because some of 



74 THE FOUNDING OK^I \KVLANI), 1634 

them had already made a settlement far up the Chesa- 
peake, at Kent Island,' which now lay within his grant; 
so he told Leonard Calvert to notify these Kent Island- 
ers that they now belonged to Maryland, though he was 
not to use force to bring them under his government till 
the prescribed year should expire. 

All this shows us that Baltimore was shrewd enough 
not to pick a quarrel with his neighbors, until his colony 
should be firmly seated. Then he would know what 
to do next. 

Calvert was also told to plant corn for bread first of 
all. So well was this advice followed that out of their 
excess the Dove was freighted with corn that same au- 
tumn, for Boston, to be exchanged there for dried fish 
and other commodities ; and Calvert wrote by her to 
Governor Dudley, offering to open a trade between the 
two colonies. Ho we see that Maryland had first to look 
to New England for a market. 

It chanced that the Bostonians already had some trade 
with Virginia, by which means they knew of the arrival 
of this Maryland colony, and of its being in part com- 
posed of Roman Catholics. Though not unwilling to 
buy with them and sell with them, the Puritans hated 
the very name of Catholics. Lord Baltimore, himself, 
could not have lived in New England any more than in 
Virginia. Bad blood immediately showed itself. Com- 
plaint was made against the Dove's crew for using abus- 
ive language toward the Bostonians, who attempted to 
have the offenders arrested and punished. As the crew 
kept close on board their vessel this could not be done, 
but the master was told not to bring any more such un- 
ruly men to that colony. 

We have now gained some insight into what was 



THE FOUNDING OF MARYLAND, 1634 



75 



thought of Maryland in Virginia and in New England at 
its founding. Public opinion declared it a Catholic col- 
ony. And no wonder. The proprietor was a Catholic, 
the governor was a Catholic, and so were the ministers ; 
so that all power, both lay and church, was firmly se- 
cured to that sect. By its charter the colony was Prot- 
estant ; in spirit and intent, Catholic. The mass was 
said at its first landing, and in the name given to the first 




THE BLUFF, ST. MARY S, MD. 



settlement we find strong evidence of the religious pref- 
erences of the founders. 

Admitting that both sects could enjoy their religion 
together without quarrelling, the colony was well bal- 
anced for toleration. Each sect had a check on the 
other. The Protestants had the charter and the Catho- 
lics the rulers. Yet it is safe to say that these Protes- 
tants could have been neither very strong churchmen, 
nor very bigoted Puritans, or they never Avould have 
joined hands lovingly with Catholics. Many were, 



70 



THE FOUND! NG OF«VRYLAND, 1034 



doubtless, men of low condition, whose religion sat 
rather loosely upon them. 

It pays to dwell a little upon this question of religion, 
because it is the most striking phase, not only in the 
history of Maryland, but of all these colonies. How 
Protestants and Catholics, who were everywhere persecute 
ing each other, could be brought to live here in peace 
and good-will is surprising to all who know the history 
of the time. That Baltimore should ever have conceived 
such an idea is perhaps the strangest thing of all. 5 But 
lie did it, and he solved the problem. To establish full 
and free toleration as between men who brought all their 
antipathies with them, and were ready at a word to fall 
upon each other, was, indeed, a rude course to steer ; yet 
moderation with firmness certainly did bring about in 
Maryland what the wisest statesmen of that day would 
have treated as the wildest dream ever conceived by man. 
Baltimore showed that the two rival forms of religious 
belief could live and let live. It was but a little colony, 
yet the lesson was as broad as the whole world. 



1 The French Queen was Henrietta 
Maria, duchess of Orleans, and aunt of 
Louis XIV. According to popular be- 
lief she fell a victim to the terrible 
reign of the poisoners in the time of 
Louis. 

2 St. Clements, now Heron Island, 
where they planted a cross and cele- 
brated a solemn mass, "March 25, 1634. 
Father White's report, in Force's collec- 
tion, Vol. IV., is the best authority con- 
cerning the settlement of this colony. 
This, with A Relation of Maryland, 



London, 1635, is the foundation for later 
accounts. 

3 St. George, the patron saint of 
England, had been similarly honored by 
the settlers of 1607 on the Kennebec. 

4 Besides Kent Island there were 
stray settlers on the eastern shore. 

5 To escape persecution the Puritans 
were nocking to New England. Nothing 
is easier than to see why leading Catho- 
lics shoidd have caught at the same idea ; 
but a mixed colony few would have faith 
in, much less have attempted. 



POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED 77 



POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED. 

For the next twenty years Maryland was a house 
divided against itself. 

The year being up, in which Calvert was not to 
meddle with the Virginians in Maryland, civil strife 
began by his seizing a craft of theirs, for unlawful 
trading. Claiborne, the head man of Kent Island, then 
fitted out an armed sloop to do the like by Calvert. 
She met two Maryland vessels in the bay, they fought 
together, some were killed on both sides, and Claiborne's 
sloop was taken. From this time forth, in season and 
out of season, now in England, now in Virginia, Clai- 
borne was Calvert's implacable enemy. 

Awed, perhaps, by the loss of their vessels, the Kent 
Islanders seem to have kept quiet for a time, and even 
to have received a captain appointed over them by Cal- 
vert, but it was not long before they were again stirred 
to revolt by Claiborne, and having, in the summer of 
1637, secured Palmer's Island, higher up the bay, which, 
they claimed, lay outside of Baltimore's jurisdiction, 
Calvert now thought it high time to put a stop to these 
proceedings. His resolution was probably quickened by 
the knowledge that Palmer's Island would, practically, 
cut off the Indian trade of the upper country from the 
colony. 

Calvert, therefore, sailed to Kent Island ' with thirty 
musketeers, landed without opposition, took Smith and 
Boteler, the two ringleaders, prisoners, and received the 
submission of all the rest, who, by his account, numbered 
as many as one hundred and twenty men able to bear 
arms, besides women and children. He next took pos- 



78 



POLITICAL STRIFES J*€fclX AND ENDED 



session of Palmers Island, thus finally putting down all 
opposition within the colony. 

Small things become great by their results, or by their 
influence upon results. To-day, such disputes as arose 
in Maryland would probably be settled by a sheriff's 
posse ; but to the men of that day, the yielding up of a 
foot of ground meant a surrender of their chartered 




^.yyf^m^m^H 



CLAIBORNE'S TOST AT KENT ISLAND. 



rights ; and no question could well be of higher impor- 
tance to any state 1 , great or small. 

When the first colonists came over, Baltimore gave his 
brother Leonard set instructions how to govern. Among 
other things, in due time, he was to call the freemen to- 
gether for the making of laws agreeably to the charter. 
So in 1634-35 the first Colonial Assembly met at St. 
Mary's. All freemen were eligible to a voice and vote in 
it, yet Ave have seen that not all the colonists were free- 
men. 2 Probably not half of them were. Could we but 
know them, the acts of this first legislative body would 



POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED 79 

be the outgrowth of the colony's first trials and experi- 
ences, and therefore deeply interesting. But they are 
not known to exist. If any such laws were passed they 
were annulled by Baltimore. In room of these he sent 
out a body of laws of his own making. These were in 
turn rejected by the Assembly, who enacted others more 
to their own liking. But when they were laid before 
Lord Baltimore, he refused to sign them. So for some 
years there were as good as no laws at all. To remedy 
the evils arising to the colony from this state of things, 
Baltimore wisely delegated his power of approval or veto 
to his governor, reserving, however, the right to overrule 
the governor's acts if he saw fit. If it did not assure 
greater liberty to the coljnists, this act was at least one 
step toward it. 

By 1638, the colonists had spread themselves out 
across the St. George in sufficient numbers to form an- 
other hundred. 3 By this time, too (1638-39), the Assem- 
bly shaped itself somewhat more formally. Instead of 
summoning all the freemen to it as before, two burgesses 
were now elected from each hundred, to represent them. 
This brought on an election by popular vote. Previous 
assemblies had probably been quite like the modern 
town-meetings, but now rules were adopted, and legisla- 
tion proceeded in a more orderly way. 

Maryland was not ten years old when civil strife shook 
her with angry hand. All England was up in arms- 
king against parliament, people against their oppressors. 
Though they could have no hand in deciding it, the col- 
onies could not well avoid being dragged into this quar- 
rel. The cry was raised that Maryland favored the 
king. Old enemies quickly laid hold of this pretext for 
renewing their attacks, Claiborne being especially ac- 



80 



POLITICAL STRIFES B#ftlN AND ENDED 



fcive. In February, 1644, one Richard Ingle, a sea-cap- 
tain and parliament man, seized upon St. Mary's in 




mum.- cuss 



RETURN FROM A HUNT. 



Governor Calvert's absence. Kent Island then threw off 
her allegiance. Thus was the major part of the colony 
brought under subjection to the parliament. For two 
years the proprietary government was suspended. At 



POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED 81 

the end of that time Calvert raised a force in Virginia, 4 
with which the colony was regained. 

In 1647 Leonard Calvert died. Great changes were 
taking place. On both sides of the ocean men were 
stirred as never before. King Charles, who had stood 
Baltimore's fast friend, was a prisoner, and a Puritan 
parliament ruled in his stead. A Catholic colony, just 
rescued from their rule by the king's party too, could not 
feel safe a single day. If ever man had need of the wis- 
dom of the serpent and the harmlessness. of the dove, it 
was Baltimore now. He therefore appointed William 
Stone, a Protestant, to succeed his brother Leonard, 
trusting by this act to disarm his enemies, for in England 
Papists were expressly excluded from the toleration ex- 
tended to others. 

Equally radical changes were taking place within the 
colony. Some Puritans 5 who had been driven out of 
Anglican Virginia now sought and found the freedom to 
worship, denied them there, in Roman Catholic Mary- 
land. Lands were granted them on the Severn, and 
thankfully accepted. They called their town Provi- 
dence, 6 possibly in memory of that founded by Boger 
Williams, and their county Ann Arundel, in Lady Bal- 
timore's honor. Other settlers of this faith presently 
took up lands on the Patuxent. 

This distinctively Puritan settlement, which soon grew 
strong within itself, marks the rise of two parties in 
Maryland, in whom all the animosities then existing in 
England between Catholic and Protestant were sharply 
aroused. It is vain to talk of how this might have been 
avoided, or was avoided, in more peaceful times. There 
was an " irrepressible conflict," ready to break forth 
whenever men's passions should be stirred, as now they 



82 POLITICAL STRIFES I'.MPVX AND ENI)KI> 

were, by the appeals of a misguided and fanatical 
zeal. Providence, therefore, became the rallying point 
for all of that faith, soon drawing the line between 
itself and St. Mary's, where the Catholic party held 
sway. 

Meantime, in 1649, a law was passed, commonly known 
as the Act of Toleration, by which liberty of conscience 
and of worship was guaranteed to all forms of Christian 
faith whatsoever. This was an open declaration to men 
and nations that toleration was to be the fixed policy of 
this colony. 

There is an old proverb which says that when drums 
beat law r s are silent ; and drums had been beating all 
over England. Charles I. had been deposed and be- 
headed. His son and queen were fugitives. To have 
been a royal favorite or supporter was to be put under 
a ban. In the face of such momentous changes, Bal- 
timore's dexterous policy of yielding to the revolution 
step by step, regardless of what his private feelings 
might be, was overthrown by the rashness of the royal- 
ist faction in Maryland. In defiance of the ruling power 
in England, Greene, the acting governor, now proclaimed 
Charles II. king. His act was quickly disavowed, but 
the mischief was done. 

Having settled the government in England, Parliament 
next sent out commissioners to bring the refractory col- 
onies to obedience. Claiborne, Baltimore's old enemy, 
was one of them. They had strong support from the 
anti-Maryland party in Virginia, and from the anti-Cath- 
olic party in Maryland. As Stone hesitated to submit, 
they deposed him, and set up a provisional government 
at first, but afterward restored him his office until fur- 
ther orders should come from England, though, in fact, 






POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED 



83 



he was only a sort of keeper, whom the commissioners 
tolerated during good behavior. 

Having thus tied Stone's hands, the seat of govern- 
ment was removed from St. Mary's to Patuxent, where 
the Puritan party was in a majority. 

Stone now roused himself to restore the proprietors' 
rule. Upon this, the commissioners again deposed him, 
and put William Fuller over the colony. They then 
called an Assembly, from which all Catholics were ex- 
cluded. More than this, an act was passed disfranchis- 




SITE OF JESUIT CHAPEL, ST. INIGOES. 

ing Catholics. This was a complete overturning of the 
letter and spirit of Baltimore's plan of government. As 
against his broad and liberal policy, it set up a narrow 
and selfish one. 

When these doings came to Cromwell's ears he 
promptly disowned them, and sharply rebuked the com- 
missioners for going beyond their authority. At the 
same time he sent out orders that Lord Baltimore's 
officers should not be interfered with. Thus strength- 
ened, Baltimore forthwith directed Stone to resume the 
government, using force if necessary to bring about sub- 
mission. 



84 POLITICAL STRIFES UI^JN AND ENDED 

An angry and feverish feeling prevailed, to which 
these orders were as the match to the train. Baltimore's 
party were exultant ; his opponents determined not to 
yield. It could not be, they said, that Puritan England 
would not stand by them. Acting under his orders, 
Stone marched against Providence, with a force from 
St. Mary's. The Providence men tried to make terms 
for themselves, but Stone haughtily refused to treat with 
them. They then prepared to resist him. Two armed 
vessels were then lying in the river, the captains of 
which promised their aid. So when Stone's flotilla came 
within shot, it was stopped by the fire of these vessels. 
Stone then landed and drew up his men for the attack. 
Meanwhile, Fuller, who led the Providence men, sallied 
out upon Stone's flank and rear. The rival forces 
rushed upon each other, Fuller's men displaying the ban- 
ner of the Commonwealth, Stone's that of Maryland. 
Stone's men were routed and many taken, among them 
Stone himself. Four of the leaders were shot as rebels. 
Force had been employed, and it had failed. Baltimore 
had been too eager to punish his opponents ; Stone had 
miscalculated their strength and his own. 

Stone being wounded and a prisoner, Baltimore made 
Josias Fendall governor, a man who had served him well 
in these troubles, but who served him very badly as gov- 
ernor. Fuller remained at the head of the Providence 
party, both sides refraining from further hostile acts till 
the Lord Protector's pleasure should be known. 

Cromwell restored Baltimore to his own again, under 
a pledge of amnesty toward those who had risen against 
him. He also pledged himself never to consent to the 
repeal of the Act of Toleration. This agreement took 
effect in March, 1G58, and thenceforward poor distracted 






POLITICAL STRIFES BEGUN AND ENDED 



S5 



Mainland, after her long struggle for separate existence, 
passed to her rightful owner. 

Did Lord Baltimore aim to advance the cause of re- 
ligion or only his own interests ? In reading the early 
history of Maryland we are sometimes of one mind, 
sometimes of the other. Either he was before his age, 
or else he was one of the most adroit men who ever 
undertook a seemingly impossible task. 

We are also struck with the fact that neither in Vir- 
ginia nor in Maryland did the first settlers hit upon the 
fortunate spot intended by nature for the metropolis of 
the future. 



x Kent Island has been called a 
mere trading-post, not under cultiva- 
tion. There were at least two planta- 
tions, Smith's and Boteler's, and the 
number of people, well housed and pro- 
vided for, could hardly have been main- 
tained by trade alone. 

2 This name of Freemen reflects the 
social conditions then existing in Eng- 
land, where the franchise was restricted 
to those having holdings of above forty 
shillings. Baltimore established the dis- 
tinction as between those who were 
bound out to labor and those who were 
not. 

3 With an increasing number of 
plantations larger crops of corn and 
tobacco were being raised every year. 
By a law passed in 1638, everyoue who 
planted tobacco was obliged to plant two 
acres of corn. As in Virginia, tobacco 
speedily came into use the same as 
money, in the payment of salaries, fees, 
debts, taxes, etc. For these purposes it 
was made a legal tender. 

4 Governor Sir William Berkeley 



actively aided Calvert in getting posses- 
sion of Maryland again. 

5 Some Puritans had gone into Vir- 
ginia quite early, where they had been 
tolerated until they set up churches and 
preaching. In 1642 seventy-one persons 
living at "Upper Norfolk" wrote to 
Boston for ministers to be sent them. 
One of the writers was Daniel Gookin, 
afterward very prominent in New Eng- 
land. He, however, lived at Newport 
News. The letters were read in the 
churches, and three ministers, Knowles, 
Thompson, and James, were dismissed by 
their churches in order that they might 
go to Virginia. They were slenced, 
however, by the authorities, so far as 
open public worship was concerned, 
though they continued to hold meetings 
in private houses for some time. Knowles 
and James, however, soon returned. 

6 Providence was afterward called 
Arundelltown, and lastly Annapolis, in 
honor of Queen Ann, who had been a 
benefactress. 



86 COUNCIL WITH f^E IROQUOIS 

COUNCIL WITH THE IROQUOIS. 
Held at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1744. 

[Showing how treaties were made with them. J ' 

" Friends and Brethren of the United Six Nations . 

" We, who are deputed from the Government of Mary- 
land by a Commission under the Great Seal of that 
Province, now in our Hands (and which will be inter- 
preted to you) bid you welcome ; and in Token that we 
are very glad to see you here as Brethren, we give you 
this String of Wampum." 

Upon which the Indians gave the Yo-hah. 

" When the Governor of Maryland received the first 
Notice, about seven years ago, of your Claim to some 
Lands in that Province, he thought our good Friends 
and Brethren of the Six Nations had little Keason to 
complain of any Injury from Maryland, and that they 
would be so well convinced thereof, on farther Delibera- 
tion, as he should hear no more of it; but you spoke of 
that Matter again to the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
about two Years since, as if you designed to terrify us. 

" It was very inconsiderately said by you, that you 
would do yourselves Justice, by going to take Payment 
yourselves : Such an Attempt would have entirely dis- 
solved the Chain of Friendship subsisting, not only 
between us, but perhaps the other English and you. 

" We assure you, our People, who are numerous, cou- 
rageous, and have Arms ready in their Hands, will not 
suffer themselves to be hurt in their Lives and estates. 

" But, however, the old and wise People of Maryland 
immediately met in Council, and upon considering very 



COUNCIL WITH THE IROQUOIS 87 

coolly your rash expressions, agreed to invite their 
Brethren, the Six Nations, to this Place, that they might 
learn of them what Right they have to the Land in 
Maryland, and, if they had any, to make them some 
reasonable Compensation for it ; therefore the Governor 
of Maryland has sent us to meet and treat with you 
about this affair, and the brightening and strengthening 
the Chain which hath long subsisted between us. And 
as an Earnest of our sincerity and Good-will towards 
you we present you with this Belt of Wampum." 

On which the Indians gave the Yo-hah. 

" Our Great King of England, and his Subjects, have 
always possessed the Province of Maryland free and un- 
disturbed from any Claim of the Six Nations for above 
one hundred Years past, and your not saying anything 
to us before, convinces us you thought you had no Pre- 
tence to any Lands in Maryland ; nor can we yet find 
out to what Lands, or under what Title you make your 
Claim : For the Susquehannah Indians, by a Treaty 
above ninety Years since (which is on the Table, and 
will be interpreted to you) give, and yield to the English 
Nation, their heirs and assigns forever, the greatest 
part (if not all) of the lands we possess, from Patuxent 
River, on the western, as well as from Choptank River 
on the eastern side of the great bay of Chesapeake. 
And, near sixty years ago, you acknowledged to the Gov- 
ernor of New York at Albany, ' That you had given your 
lands, and submitted yourselves to the King of England.' 

" We are that great King's subjects, and we possess and 
enjoy the province of Maryland by virtue of his right 
and Sovereignty thereto ; why, then, will you stir up any 
quarrel between you and ourselves, who are as one man, 
under the protection of that great King ? " 



88 council with tWe ikoquois 

Canassatego spoke as follows : 

"BROTHER, THE GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND: 

" You tell us, that when about seveu years ago you 
heard, by our brother Onas, 2 of our claim to sonic lands in 
your province, you took no notice of it, believing, as you 
say, that when we should come to reconsider that matter, 
we should find that we had no right to make 1 any complaint 
of the Governor of Maryland, and would drop our de- 
mand. And that when about two years ago we mentioned 
it again to our brother Onas, you say Ave did it in such 
terms as looked like a design to terrify you ; and you tell 
us further, that we must be beside ourselves, in using such 
a rash expression as to tell you, we know how to do our- 
selves justice if you still refuse. It is true we did say 
so, but without any ill design ; for we must inform you, 
that when we first desired our brother Onas to use his 
influence with you to procure us satisfaction for our lands, 
we, at the same time, desired him, in case you should dis- 
regard our demand, to write to the great king beyond 
the seas, who would own us for his children as well as 
you, to compel you to do us justice : And, two years ago, 
when we found that you had paid no regard to our just 
demand, nor that brother Onas had conveyed our com- 
plaint to the great king over the seas, Ave Avere resolved 
to use such expressions as would make the greatest im- 
pression on your minds, and we find it had its effect ; 
for you tell us, that your Avise men then held a council 
together, and agreed to invite us, and to inquire of our 
right to any of your lands, and if it should be found that 
we had a right, Ave were to have a compensation made for 
them : And likewise you tell us, that our brother, the 
Governor of Maryland, by the advice of these Avise men, 



COUNCIL WITH THE IROQUOIS 



89 



lias sent you to brighten the chain, and to assure us of 
his willingness to remove whatever impedes a good under- 
standing between us. This shows that your wise men 
understood our expressions in their true sense. We had 
no design to terrify you, but to put you on doing us the 
justice you had so long delayed. Your wise men have 
done well ; and as there is no obstacle to a good under- 
standing between us, except this affair of our land, we, 
on our parts, do give you the strongest assurances of our 
good disposition towards you, and that we are as desir- 
ous as you to brighten the chain, and to put away all 
hindrances to a perfect good understanding ; and in token 
of our sincerity, we give you this belt of wampum." 

Which was received, and the interpreter ordered to 
give the Yo-hah. 



1 This extract is introduced to show 
how adroitly the Iroquois could manage 
affairs of this nature. The council was 
held at Lancaster, Pa. It was called to 
settle disputes between the Iroquois and 
Maryland, and incidentally with Virginia 
also, about the title to certain lands. 
Commissioners from both those colonies 
were, therefore, present. The Indian 



deputies were first treated to wine, punch, 
pipes, and tobacco. The whole proceed- 
ings may be found in Colderi's Five Na- 
tions, p. 89. 

2 Onas was the name the Iroquois 
gave to Penn and his successors, as 
Assarigoa was that given to the gover- 
nors of Virginia. 



III. 

THE GREAT IROQUOIS LEAGUE. 



THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS. 

T1HE first entry of a European upon the soil of New York 
was made in warlike sort. In July. 1609, the noted 
Samuel Champlain, founder of Quebec the year before, 
fell in with some Hurons who were going to fight their 
bitter enemies, the Iroquois. To please them Cham- 
plain caused some muskets to be fired off, at which the} r 
set up loud cries, for they had never heard the like be- 
fore. One and all besought the great white chief who 
carried the lightning in his hand, to go with them, for 
with his aid they felt that they would be invincible ; and 
he, partly to strengthen his power over them, partly to 
gratify his desire to explore the Iroquois country, 1 con- 
sented, and went. 

Seldom has the coming of one man into a country had 
so much to do with shaping its history. From the Iro- 
quois River, now the Richelieu, the party passed up into 
the great fresh- water lake, with mountain banks, to which, 
at this time, Champlain gave his own name. 2 While 
paddling southward he was told that just beyond this 
lake there was another, 3 which fell into it, and that a 
short day's journey beyond this again a noble river ran 
south to the salt sea. 






THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS 91 

This was indeed great news. Tims to have found a 
great inland water route stretching from the St. Lawrence 
to the south Atlantic coast, and by the merest chance, too, 
must have rilled this born explorer with keen delight. 
Champlain also learned that these lakes and this river, 
with Lake Ontario at the north, set the bounds, at large, 
of the Iroquois country, and he had seen quite enough 
already to get some idea of its vast extent. As for his 
allies, that they were more than half afraid to meet the 
Iroquois had been evident all along. Here, then, was 




THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY. 

food for reflection. If it was easy for him thus to invade 
the Iroquois, at their eastern door, what was to prevent 
their doing the like by him whenever they should choose 

to retaliate ? 

The Iroquois, also being out for war, were met on the 
lake Both sides were marshalled for battle at the lake- 
side 4 Champlain keeping himself well hid until the mo- 
ment of attack. The Iroquois then raised their war-cries 
and confidently rushed to the onset, but when Cham- 
plain, at one shot, struck down three plumed chiefs, 
terror mastered the rest, and they fled like deer before 
the hunter. 



92 



THE tROQUOtS COtJNT^gl A\I> NATIONS 



This memorable defeat was the direct means of bring- 
ing down upon all Frenchmen the undying hate of the 
whole Iroquois league, and what that meant they had 
yet to learn. The Iroquois never forgot or forgave it. 
They became a wall against which advancing French 

power beat in vain, 
7 ~^ ^Slll while behind it the 

English grew and 
waxed strong. It 
may truly be said 
that the English of 
New York grew up 
under Iroquois pro- 
tection. Champlaiu 
had done this with a 
charge of powder. 

It is true that this 
wall was in time 
broken down. Grad- 
ually the Iroquois 
wasted away, for the 
English were at all 
times as lavish of the 
blood of these faith- 
ful allies as they were 
sparing of their own 
— so much so that 
it is a wonder how the Iroquois could remain true as long 
as they did. But, sometimes, even Indian patience was 
exhausted. Once, when the Governor of New York was 
urging them to give the French no rest, saying, "You 
must keep them in perpetual alarm," he was reproach- 
fully asked, " Why don't you say ' We will keep the 




SAYA YEATH QUA TIETH TON. KINU OF 
M4QUAS, A MOHAWK, OR BEAR, CHIEF. 5 



the Iroquois country and nations 



93 



enemy in perpetual alarm ? ' Brother Corlaer, 6 you 
desire us to do this that they may have no rest till 
they are in their graves. Is it not to secure your own 
frontiers ? Why, then, not one word of your people 
that are to join us ?" It was a home thrust. 

Who and what, 
then, were these 
strange people, 
whom the French 
called Iroquois 7 and 
the English the Five 
Nations ? Some think 
they were, at first, but 
one nation ; others 
doubt this. It is cer- 
tain, however, that 
the Oneidas and Ca- 
yugas called the oth- 
ers "fathers," as if 
these could claim to 
be an older people. 8 
But at this time they 
were to all intents 
five nations in one. 
Then, again, though 
they themselves 
claimed to have come up out of the ground, where the 
Europeans found them, some believe that long ago they 
all came in a body from the far West, along with the 
Lenapes or Delawares, and that after conquering their 
new homes from the rightful owners, they fell to fight- 
ing among themselves for the spoils. But this is all 
tradition. Without letters, the Iroquois really have no 




TEE YEE NEEN HO GA RON, EMPEROIl OF THE 
SIX NATIONS. 



94 



Til E [ROQUOIS COUNTJ 



AND NATIONS 



historv going back of the coming of the whites, who, 
again, may have put down many fables." All Ave know 
is that at some remote period, not now easily fixed, these 
five nations, at the prompting of Hiawatha, 10 a sage and 
patriarch among them, ceased from warring together and 
bound themselves by a solemn league ever after to stand 
one for all and all for one. 

These five savage republics were the Mohawks, Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. In that order they 
lay in groups between the Hudson and Genesee, all along 




LONG HOUSE OP THE IROQUOIS. 



the central portion of New York. To specify their union, 
in their way, they very aptly called themselves the Long 
House ; and words could not have done it better, since all 
were as one family, under one roof, to the defence of 
which all rallied as one man. They being in the centre of 
the line, the Great Council, or Long House, was intrusted 
to the care of the Onondagas, who thereby gained peculiar 
honor as "keepers of the council brand." " 

The Mohawks, who were so terrible to their foes, lay 
along the south side of the Mohawk, nearly to its head, 
with their principal castle at Canajoharie. It was proba- 
bly they who had fought with Champlain. The Oneidas 12 
lived at the head of this valley, with their chief castle ten 



THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS 95 

miles northwest of Wliitestown ; the Onondagas where 
Syracuse and its salt springs now are ; the Cayugas on 
the shores of that lake ; and the Senecas, who were much 
the most numerous, savage, and intractable of all, in the 
valley of the Genesee and that neighborhood. Here 
were five or six thousand active fighting men who, at 
need, could be drawn in at the Long House, as the arms 
are to the body, or quickly be rallied to one another's 
help upon any sudden emergency. 

First of all, the league was a warlike one. The allies 
held what may be called the strategic command of the 
great lakes in front, and of the Delaware, Susquehanna, 
and Ohio valleys behind them, by means of which they 
could overrun their neighbors at will. 13 Nature had thus 
put power into their hands ; their own valor had held it 
fast. Each nation had its palisaded towns or castles, 14 to 
which all might fly at the approach of danger. On account 
of their long valley the Mohawks had three. 

Masters of a region set apart by nature as the highway 
of the continent, where merely scraping the earth pro- 
duced a rich harvest, abounding in fish and game, com- 
manding all the waters flowing to the north and to the 
south, the Iroquois were alike in a position to be courted 
as friends or dreaded as enemies. Then, their whole 
country was seamed by connecting lakes and rivers. 
Sun never shone on one more beautiful. One glance at 
this network of waters, finding its main outlet at Oswego, 
will show how quickly the confederates could bring a 
great power to Onondaga, either to sally forth upon an 
enemy or resist his attack. It was an admirable system 
of intercommunication, prepared beforehand by nature, 
but seized upon with a true military insight. 

Being warriors before all, physical training was given 



m 



THE tROQttOtS COtJNT^ AXD NATlOtfS 



the highest value, and began as soon as a boy could walk. 
His first plaything was a bow and arrow, his greatest 
vanity to be told he would sonic day be a warrior. He was 
taught to run, to wrestle, to swim, to fight his own battles, 
to endure cold, hunger, or pain uncomplainingly ; and 

he even was allowed 
to join in torturing 
prisoners, to the end 
that his heart might 
be hardened to suf- 
fering. Every war- 
rior, therefore, grew 
up a trained athlete. 
If he failed to do all 
expected of him there 
was no hope left for 
him. Noble stature, 
strength and sym- 
metry of limb, grace 
of gesture or move- 
ment were, therefore, 
so common, that 
w h e n the painter 
West first saw, in 
Italy, a statue of 
the Apollo Belve- 
young Mohawk war- 




ECON OH KOAN, KING OF THE 11IVER NATION. 



How like 



dere, he exclaimed 
rior ! " 

Intellectual training came next, not from books, but 
through contests in debates at the council or in the wig- 
wam. The first thing taught was self-control. Think 
before you speak, was their maxim. There were no off- 
hand retorts, no interruptions, no talking against time. 



THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS 97 

Every word had its due weight, every speaker a respect- 
ful hearing. 

Though utter savages in their way of life, and thorough 
pagans in their belief, the natural gifts of the Iroquois 
put them on a level with the very best among the whites. 
Not seldom, indeed, when it came to a trial of wits, the 
civilized white man had to yield to these wild men of 
the woods ; and though their memory was all their books, 
yet their way of cultivating and disciplining it was so 
thorough that when called upon to do so, the keepers of 
their wampum belts "could rise and repeat the substance 
of any treaty the nation had ever made, as well as if all 
had been set down in black and white. 

Against their own race they were considered invincible 
and with good reason. They had fought with and con- 
quered the Hurons of that lake, the Illinois of the far 
West, the Delawares of Pennsylvania, the Tuscaroras of 
North Carolina, who, after 1714, joined them, thus mak- 
ing Six Nations. So completely had they overawed the 
New England Indians that at the cry of " A Mohawk ! a 
Mohawk ! " these people would run like sheep before 
wolves. 

In the extent of their conquests, therefore, the Iroquois 
strongly remind us of the ancient Eomans, as both seem 
to have aimed at universal dominion, only, we think, the 
Iroquois showed the more wisdom in holding the con- 
quered as vassals and exacting tribute of them, instead 
of weakening themselves by armed occupation of con- 
quered countries, as the Eomans did. Fear proved an all- 
sufficient check to rebellion. A story is told of a Mo- 
hawk warrior who went alone among the Long Island 
Indians to demand the customary tribute. This being- 
refused or evaded, the Mohawk, though but one man in 
7 



08 



THE IROQUOIS COUNTllF AND NATION'S 



the midst of many, instantly, with one blow of his toma- 
hawk, laid the offending chief dead at his feet, replaced 
the bloody weapon in his belt, and stalked from the place 
unharmed, for none dared question an act done by order 
of the great league. 
Ho in regard to any and all acts of their tributaries. 

Here is another sam- 
ple of their imperious 
way of dealing out 
justice. There was 
a dispute between 
Pennsylvania and the 
Del a wares about 
land. The former ap- 
pealed to the Five 
Nations, who, in turn, 
cited the Delaw r ares 
to a general council, 
where, the matter be- 
ing heard, and the 
D e 1 a w a res clearly 
proved in the wrong, 
Canasatego, the 
speaker for the Five 
Nations, stood up and 
said to them : " Cous- 
ins, let this belt of 
wampum serve to chastise you. You ought to be taken 
by the hair of the head and shaked severely till you re- 
cover your senses and become sober. . . . But how 
came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We 
conquered you ; we made women of you ; you know you 
are women and can no more sell land than women ; nor 




HO NEE YEATH TAN NO RON, KING OF THE GENE- 
RECHGARICH. 






THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS 99 

is it fit you should have the power since you would abuse 
it. . We charge you to remove instantly ; we don't 

give you liberty to think about it. You are women. 
Take the advice of a wise man and remove instantly." 

After passing this severe sentence Canasatego abruptly 
ordered the Delawares out of the council. " We have 
some further business to transact with our brethren 
here," he scornfully said. Could anything imply a more 
complete assertion of master over servant ? 

Of the prisoners taken, such as were spared were 
adopted in place of those who had fallen in battle. What 
seems strange is that an adopted enemy became in time 
a thorough-going Iroquois, though he was not fully trusted 
till time had proved his fidelity. In general, the prisoner 
so received would be turned over to some family who had 
lost one of its own members, and given the dead man's 
name, as it was a point of honor not to let a great name 
die out. The women prisoners were given to the war- 
riors in marriage, so that a Huron mother might live to 
see her Iroquois sons grow up to fight against her own 
brothers. 

From their allies they demanded great show of respect 
as their due. On one occasion a party of Mohawks who 
were marching forth for war sent word to an English fort 
that they expected the usual military honors as they 
passed it. The soldiers were accordingly paraded out- 
side, arms were presented, and the drums beat a inarch 
as the Indians went by in single file and in deep silence. 
As each in turn passed the officer he took his gun from 
his shoulder and fired it into the ground near the officer's 
feet. With less attention, the officer said, they would have 
been displeased. In short, their vanity was so excessive 
that they called themselves the Ongwee-Honwe, or men 



100 



THE IROQUOIS COUNTl^ AXI> NATIONS 



surpassing all others. Great deeds might be expected 
from men who thus believed in themselves. 



1 Iroquois Country. Ever since 
Champlain's coming up the St. Law- 
rence the Indians had bees talking to 
him about this country and people. 
His curiosity to see both was fully 
aroused. 

» Lake Cuamplain, of many names, 
was called Corlaer's Lake by the Five 
Nations, for the first Dutch settler of 
Schenectady, whom the Mohawks greatly 
esteemed, and who was drowned by the 
oversetting of his canoe there. This is 
the tradition : "There is a rock in this 
lake on which the waves dash and fly up 
to a great height when the wind blows 
hard. The Indians believe that an old 
Indian lives under this rock who has the 
power of the winds ; and therefore as 
they pass it in their voyages over, they 
always throw a pipe or some other small 
present to this old Indian, and pray a 
favorable wind. The English that pass 
with them sometimes laugh at them, but 
they are sure to be told of Corlaer's 
death. 'Your great countryman, Cor- 
kier,' say they, ' as he passed by this rock, 
jested at our fathers' making presents to 
this old Indian, but this affront cost him 
his life.' "—Colden's Five Nations, p. 32. 

3 Br Another Lake and River, 
Lake George and the Hudson are meant. 

4 This fight took place near Ticon- 
deroga. See Making of Sew England, 
pp. 40-48. 

5 Mohawk Chief. Five Indian 
Chiefs went to England, 1710. were pre- 
sented to the Queen, and sat for their 
portraits, from which the four pictures 
in this chapter are copied. 

6 Corlaer : refer to note 2. From 
the high place this upright man held 
in their esteem, the Five Nations wire. 
for more than a century, accustomed to 
call every English governor of New York 
Corlaer, a name signifying with them the 
highest excellence, 



7 Iroquois. This was what the II u- 
rons of the Lakes called the Five .Na- 
tions ; not what they called themselves. 
It was adopted by the French, who heard 
it from their Indians ; hence the name, 
now in general use, was given this peo- 
ple by its enemies. 

8 Older People. No people took 
greater pride in their antiquity. Though 
all the members of the league called 
eaeli other "bothers," the Oneidas and 
Cayugas 1 were also called '-children" 
by the others, as if their history had 
been more recent, or as if they had been 
at some time dependents. 

M It is not likely that these questions 
will ever be cleared up. Most of the an- 
cient traditions have died out. The rem- 
nant of this people are mostly of mixed 
blood, and even the language itself, with 
the lapse of time, has lost its purity. 

10 Hiawatha. This is the same 
whom Longfellow commemorates. The 
Iroquois believed him immortal, where- 
as Tododaho, the terrible Onondaga, was 
only a superior man. Both have, or did 
have, living representatives among the 
surviving Iroquois. 

11 Keepers of the Council Brand. 
" Now, before the Christians arrived, the 
General Council of the Five Nations was 
held at Onondaga, where there has, from 
the beginning, a continual fire been kept 
burning; it is made of two great logs 
whose fire never extinguishes."— Sada- 
kanahtie. an Onondaga chiefs account. 
—Cokleii's Five Nations, p. 167. 

i 2 Oneida. This name is said to mean 
a stone, or an upright stone.— Kirklan&s 
Memoirs, 20;"). The figure of a stone or 
rock was often used by the other nations 
when speaking of the Oneidas: "It is 
true that above a hundred years ago the 
Dutch came here in a ship. . . . We, 
from the affection we bore them, again 
removed the rope and tied it to a big and 






THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND NATIONS 



101 



strong rock." [Here the interpreter said 
they mean the Oneida country.]— Carta- 
sategd's Speech. 

13 A careful study of the map will 
make this statement clear. 

n Indian castles were not what the 
name usually implies, but were only vil- 
lages inclosed by stout pickets, set in the 
ground in the form of a square, without 



bastions or outworks. Champlain shows 
one he attacked in 1615. This, however, 
was a hexagon.— Voyages, hi., 130. 

1 5 Keeper of Belts. The keeper 
of a belt was supposed to have commit- 
ted to memory that part of a treaty as- 
signed him in council, of which the belt 
was the symbol or keepsake. 






THE IROQUOIS AT HOME. 

We mow see how much to the interest of all the Eng- 
lish colonies it was to be on good terms with the 
Iroquois ; how even the Governors of Virginia, Mary- 
land, and Pennsylvania had to come all the way to 
Albany to treat with them, since none knew better than 
these English Governors did, that without peace no 
white settlements could safely be extended back into 
the wilderness country. Iroquois dominion was thus a 
thing admitted. We have also seen something of their 
fighting capacity, numbers, and conquests. But to hold 
such a mass of unruly peoples in awe surely required 
something more than brute courage or mere numbers ; 
behind this there must be a directing head and hand. 

As war was their chief business, so bravery was their 
first virtue; but though trained to be warriors, the 
Iroquois also had broad views of statecraft. Before they 
would fight they must reason together ; and as this proves 
that they gave the mind its due superiority over force, so 
wisdom was among their first virtues. We must admit 
them, then, to have been not the mere creatures of sudden 
passion, but reasoning, reflecting beings. 

Then, again, they had a national policy, shaped by 



102 



IE IROQUOIS^T HOME 




TOTEM, FIVE NATIONS. 



what they believed their true interests to be. And no 
]><M>ple ever knew them better or gave better advice in 
time of need. Had the English been as much alive to 
their own wants, the French would have been driven out 

of Canada long before they 
were. The Iroquois had a 
natural turn for affairs. 

Their plan of government 
was at once so simple, so 
ingenious, so original, as 
to show deep and earnest 
thought in its every part. 
In the first place, all were 
equal. There was neither 
an aristocracy of blood nor of 
riches ; no orders of nobility 
or any of that absolute rule 
found among the Virginian or New England Indians, 
where a Powhatan or a King Philip gave the law to his 
unresisting subjects, but entire equality. 

Far back, when the league was first formed, it was 
provided that fifty head chiefs, drawn from among the 
Nations, should be the Great Council or Long House. 
This was only called, however, to consider what affected 
the whole body, or settle disputes arising between the 
Nations, as in a congress of independent States. Be- 
yond this, each was left to settle its domestic concerns in 
its own way, and thus each was a little republic in itself. 
The Great Council had no power to enforce its decrees, 
or the league to coerce one of its members. There was 
absolute liberty of action. Each confederate might go 
out on the warpath alone, or might refuse to go out with 
the rest, or it might make peace for itself, without put- 



THE IROQUOIS AT HOME 103 

ting iii peril the general good understanding. 1 The gov- 
ernment, if we may call it such, rested solely on the free 
consent of the governed. Yet what the Council agreed 
upon was usually adhered to. In this way there was a 
compact strong enough to secure the common weal, while 
jealously guarding the individual rights of each Nation. 
And this is probably the clearest idea of a pure democ- 
racy ever thought out by human minds. 

Such confederacies have often been likened to a rope 
of sand, yet these barbarians hit upon a way of making 
their rope strong, simply admirable. For want of any 
records among them we know less about it than we 
should; but this much we do know. It had been com- 
mon for the people of the different Nations to intermarry, 
from an early time. A Mohawk brave might marry an 
Oneida girl, and their grown-up children might marry 
into an Onondaga, a Seneca, or a Cayuga family. Pride 
of race was very strong among them. Hence, all of that 
Mohawk strain of blood would thenceforth form a tribe by 
itself, known by a distinguishing mark or totem of its 
own ; 2 so that in course of 
time there arose in all the 
Nations these tribes within 
tribes, that came to be, as it 
Avere, little threads of blood- 
kindred, running through all, 
by means of which the rope bear totem, indian drawing. 
was made strong. 

In adopting a uinque family symbol these untaught 
Iroquois merely followed in the lead of the cultured Athe- 
nians, whose national symbol was a grasshopper, and 
whose banners bore an owl. It flattered their pride to 
say that they were an original people— that they came 




104 THE IROQUOIS 4*1 HOME 

up out of the ground, like the grasshopper. The Iro- 
quois did even better: they chose something which 
stood for the embodiment of wisdom, bravery, or rugg< < I 
strength. 

In all there were eight of these clans, as the Bear, 
Wolf, Tortoise, Deer, Heron, Snipe, Beaver, Hawk. Some 
writers add a ninth, the Potato. It seems plain, how- 
ever, that the Bear, Wolf, and Tortoise had the greatest 
repute, the Tortoise coming first in dignity because of its 
high antiquity, as the Iroquois believed that the earth 
was first built on the back of a tortoise, and had ever 
since been upheld by one. These three leading elans 
were, perhaps, originally found only among the Mohawks, 
Oneidas, and Onondagas. The novelist Cooper makes 
great use of the tortoise totem in his "Last of the Mohi- 
cans," though it is there a Delaware symbol. We have 
just intimated how proud the tribesmen were of their 
race. A Mohawk, for instance, said of his tribe, " We 
are of the race of the bear, and a bear, you know, never 

yields while one drop of blood 
is left. We must all be bears." 
The wise men of the Iro- 
quois turned all this to politi- 
cal account. That is, they 
made it the groundwork for a 
national feeling ; and it was this that really held their 
confederacy together. A Seneca could not be struck 
without hurting a Mohawk. An injury to one was an 
injury to all. From these tribes, and not from the Nations, 
as such, the fifty head sachemships were originally taken, 
and made hereditary in thai clou. When a sachem died 
he was succeeded by the next of kin, on the female side. 
And thus a governing body was always in existence. It 




TORTOISE TOTEM, INDIAN DRAWING. 



THE IROQUOIS AT HOME 



105 




was not an hereditary aristocracy, it sprang from the 
people ; but it was perpetual. 

These fifty head chiefs were not expected to lead their 
people to Avar. They were counsellors. Besides them 
there were many inferior chiefs, raised by merit or bravery 
to that rank ; but a title so gained ceased with the life of 
him who held it. There were chiefs who were great ora- 
tors, and there were chiefs 
who were great warriors. 
Intellect and courage 
were alike esteemed in \I^$b ^ 

tlieir place. BEAVER TOTEM, INDIAN drawing. 

When matters of mo- 
ment were before the Great Council, members from each 
Nation resorted to the place of meeting, there to dis- 
cuss the affair in hand, and thereby to exert what poli- 
ticians of this day term an " outside pressure " upon the 
council. They were not admitted to its debates, how- 
ever, though inferior chiefs would sometimes push their 
way in as a means to this end. 

Great decorum marked all its proceedings. There is 
no instance known either of abusive language, threaten- 
ing speeches, or violent assault being offered. For one 
speaker to break in upon another, or show temper, would 
have shocked the assembly. The greater the cause for 
excitement, the more passion was curbed. In council 
wisdom asserted itself ; it was only when a decision had 
been reached that the pent-up passions of young and old 
were given free rein. Parties they had, but not for the ad- 
vancement of demagogues. No Iroquois could have under- 
stood what is meant by "filibustering," or why rational 
men should waste the nation's time at the nation's ex- 
pense. While one spoke the rest pondered his words 



106 



THE [ROQUOIS^Rc HOME 



long and deeply, or signified their assent by exclaiming 
Ho ! ho ! 3 from time to time. Though in action so swift, 
in council their rule was to make haste slowly. 

In ordinary conversation their answers were always 
short and to the point. Babbling was considered wom- 
anly. They could talk together over their pipes, and in 
telling of their exploits were wordy enough ; yet loqua- 
city was not often found, because there was nothing a 
warrior so much feared as being called a woman. La 

Hon tan has told us 
that all a savage 
would say to his 
family after return- 
ing from a long- 
hunt would be : "I 
have come : I wish 
you all much hon- 
or." Then all pres- 
e n t would light 
their pipes a n d 
smoke in silence, 
without asking a 
single question. After finishing his pipe, the new-comer 
would, perhaps, say, " Listen : I have come from such a 
place ; and have seen such and such a thing." 

In communicating bad news they were in the habit of 
beating the bush considerably. For instance, a warrior 
would stalk into a wigwam and seat himself without a 
word. Indian etiquette prescribed that all should wait 
till he got ready to speak. Presently he would begin 
by saying to the father that his son had distinguished 
himself in war. To this the father would reply, " That is 
good," without asking for particulars. After another 




IROQUOIS AND PRISONER. 



THE IROQUOIS AT HOME 107 

long pause the messenger of evil tidings would add that 
his son had been slain. The stoical parent would dis- 
miss the subject by saying "That is nothing." They 
were great economists of words, those Iroquois. 

Their higher attributes were love of liberty and love 
of country, thirst for glory, contempt of death, hospitality, 
fidelity to friends and treaties. And though their filthy 
habits excite our disgust, their cruelties our indignation, 
we can and do find much in them to admire and com- 
mend. 

To their foes they made themselves so terrible that 
Iroquois cruelty became proverbial in France, and even 
throughout Europe. In one of Voltaire's letters he 
writes of a young man, of only fifteen, who had been con- 
demned, "by those Iroquois of Abbeville," to lose his 
hand, have his tongue cut out, and then be burned alive 
for offering some slight to the clergy. 4 Voltaire then asks 
pardon of the Iroquois for comparing them with these 
abominable judges. Indeed, barbarians are more easily 
excused than civilized men. The French actually burned 
some Iroquois prisoners alive at Quebec, and sent many 
others to perish in the galleys by order of the Most 
Christian king. 

1 The Mohawks, for instance, pro- bear tatooed on his breast. This mark 
ceeded to clear themselves from the would be put to every public paper, and 
charge of making war against the Vir- often set up in the wigwam. 

ginians, and to rebuke the other Nations. 3 "Ho! ho!" was good— something 

—History of the Five Nations, p. 48. The like hear ! hear ! " Yo-ha ! " was an ex- 

Onondagas at one time made a separate clamation of assent, like the affirmative 

peace with the French.— Ibid. ay ! in our way of expressing it ; it also 

2 If, for instance, the Mohawk totem conveyed thanks. 

was a bear, every descendant of those 4 Voltaire says the sentence was con- 

first parents would wear the figure of a firmed by the Parliament of Paris. 



IV. 
THE DUTCH ON MANHATTAN 



A GLANCE AT HOLLAND. 

fTlHE coast of North America had now been struck at 
- 1 - three points — Florida, Virginia, and Canada — and 
by three different nations — Spanish, English, and French. 
They were, however, too far apart either to help or hurt 
each other much. Long ago Spain had laid her mailed 
hand on this continent, and sternly said, " Let all who 
touch beware ! " But Spain had not been able to make 
good her threat of keeping all others away. To do so 
she must first have subdued the whole world, and she had 
tried that to her cost. First she had fallen on England. 
As soon as England had beaten her Invincible Armada 
all Europe took courage. Certainly that defeat opened 
the seas Spain had so arrogantly declared closed. And 
after this victory England had gone on, in Virginia, as 
if there had been no Spain. 

There is still another, and, if possible, still more wonder- 
ful, story to tell. It is this : When the Armada had come 
sailing into the British Channel it was to have been 
joined by thirty -five thousand Spanish soldiers from the 
ports of Flanders. The combined English and Dutch 
fleets kept them shut up where they were, otherwise the 



A GLANCE AT HOLLAND 



109 



story might have been different, for it was a veteran 
army, led by the ablest captain in all Europe. 

But how, it will be asked, came a Spanish army in 
Flanders ? For sixteen long years Spain had been trying 
to subdue the Dutch provinces to her rule. Seven of 
them united to resist her to the death. With splendid 
courage they had withstood a war unexampled in ferocity 
and determination. The spirit they had shown had won 
the admiration of all Chris- 
tendom. For eleven years 
more they kept up the un- 
equal conflict. Worn out 
at last by her own efforts 
Spain sullenly and reluc- 
tantly acknowledged their 
independence and granted 
a truce for twelve years. 
This, in brief, is the story 
of the rise of the Dutch 
Kepublic or United Neth- 
erlands. And this hap- 
pened in the year 1609. 

Before Spain would grant either peace or truce she 
insisted that the Hollanders should not trade with either 
Indies, East or West. This was firmly refused. Not 
trade to far countries when not a sixth part of the people 
could be fed from the soil ! Give up the ocean ! Never ! 
The King of Spain, they quaintly and forcibly said, had 
not yet enclosed the ocean with a rail fence. 

This incident shows us what a value the Hollanders set 
upon their foreign trade. " And what a trade it was ! " 
exclaims the historian Motley. The foreign trade of no 
other nation could be compared with it, he says. Twenty 




DUTCH WINDMILL. 



110 



A GLANCE ATHTOLLAND 



ships traded regularly to Guinea, eighty to the Cape de 
Verde Islands, twenty to America, and forty to the East 
Indies. Truly they might as well have owned them- 
selves conquered at once as have given up their main 
resource at the command of the Spanish king. 










DITCH COSTUMES. 



Why, at that very moment their ships were sailing on 
the most distant seas. In the Far East, Batavia, in Java, 
was being founded. In the Far West, a ship was seeking 
a short way to China. Let us follow that ship. 



HUDSON'S VOYAGE, 1609. 

"All roads lead to India. ' ' 



Champlain had scarce turned hack, victorious, from 
writing his name in blood on the gate of the north, when 
a Dutch discovery-ship approached it from the south. 



Hudson's voyage, 1609 m 

Since spring this ship had "been vainly searching the coasts, 
north and south, for a passage through to India. 1 Her 
master, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, was just now in 
the Dutch East India Company's service. He had seen 
the passage he was looking for laid down on a map, 
which we, of course, know to have been false, though 
Hudson did not. Hope had not entirely left him when 
a break in the coast line caused him once more to bear 
up for it, and here began a new voyage into wonderland. 



&ST* ? 




ROBTN'S RIFT, MOUTH OF THE KILLS. 



Having anchored, the whites landed and met the Ind- 
ians, who looked with wonder at the strange visitors and 
their monster canoe ; yet, seeing no harm was meant 
them, they soon got over their fears, though suspicion may 
Avell have lurked in their breasts that the visit of these 
pale and bearded men boded them no good. Presently 
they plucked up the courage to go on board, carrying 
with them a present of tobacco, for which the sailors 
gave knives, beads, and clothing in return. 



112 Hudson's votoge, igo9 

Here is what the Indians themselves afterward said 
about this first meeting. They said that they had Learned 
from their ancestors that the first ship surprised them 
exceedingly; that they were curious to know what was 
in its huge belly." They found Christians in it, who 
brought with them knives, hatchets, guns, and many 
other things, which they gave to the red men. Their 
ancestors were so well pleased with these Christians that 
they tied the ship to bushes on the shore; and after- 
ward, liking them still better the longer they stayed, 
removed the rope and tied it to trees ; and, as trees were 
liable to be blown down, they again removed the rope to 
a big and strong rock ; and, finally, not content with this, 
to a big mountain. This was the Indians' way of ex- 
pressing the renewal, from time to time, of a perpetual 
friendship. 

Hudson next set his crew to sounding oat the channel. 
They were returning to their ship, when they were sud- 
denly set upon by two canoes, filled with Indians, who 
sent a flight of arrows among them, killing John Column 
outright and wounding two more. After that, Hudson 
would not let the natives come on board the ship, though 
they continued to flock round her, with their gifts, as 
before. 

Finding himself in the outlet of a large river, Hudson 
came up into it, after some six days, and it was then that 
he first got sight of the low, flat, woody island, fast locked 
between two great arms of water, which nature had pre- 
pared as the metropolis of this western world. Yet no 
evidence is found that Hudson or his men foresaw its 
greatness. What they saw there they saw on all sides 
of them — a solitude, except for a stray canoe here and 
there ; a wilderness, except for the thin smoke of some half- 



HUDSON'S VOYAGE, 1609 



113 



extinguished camp-fire curling up through the tree-tops. 
This was New York in 1609. 3 

No : Hudson was far too intent upon his first object 
to dream of what changes time might bring to some 
leagues of rough woodland. India was his goal ; the river 
his path. Should it prove what he hoped for, all the 
wealth of the opulent East would be poured into the 




BELOW THE HIGHLANDS. 



coffers of his employers, and he be the peer of Columbus, 
the great Genoese. It was with impatience, then, that 
he waited for time and tide to help him on his way. 

At each flood-tide the Half -Moon slowly drifted along 
with it, helped now and then by her sails, as a puff came 
down out of the mountains to the west, or a cat's-paw 
from off some broader reach between; when the tide 
turned the anchor was let go. At this slow rate it took 
eight days to reach the head of ship navigation, near 
8 



114 Hudson's v^agj:, L609 

Albany/ where Hudson found himself stopped by the 
shallows above. So that could not be the way to India. 

Though battled in their hopes, the river did not fail to 
cast the spell of its grandeur over the discoverers. Biide 
sailors though they were, they must have been more than 
men if they could look unmoved upon the frowning Pali- 
sades or thronging mountains through which this river 
winds its majestic way. Awed, indeed, must have been 
the feelings with which they saw the declining sun gild 
the clustered peaks of the Catskills, or brighten the solid 
domes of the Helderbergs, or watched it fade into the deep 
shadows that these great mountains let fall in their path. 
We are sure of it, because Hudson could think only of 
the name Great River of the Mountains, to give to it. 5 

He found the banks well peopled ; a line climate, a soil 
yielding well even to the poor tillage of the natives, waters 
alive with fat salmon, forests with game. Every day the 
savages would bring off fresh oysters, venison, beans, 
pumpkins, and wild grapes, for all these were now in their 
season ; so that the sailors had the evidence of their own 
stomachs how easily man lived in that land of plenty. 

Hudson did one thing here for which he is justly 
blamed. At his farthest anchorage some of the native 
chiefs paid him a visit. Before he would trust them, 
Hudson resolved to try them, and to do so, plied them 
with liquor till all became helplessly intoxicated. So 
runs the story. It was a cruel stratagem. It is quite as 
probable, Ave think, that the act was prompted by a 
wicked desire to see how savages would act when under 
the influence of liquor or for sport. 

During their stay the white men got many otter and 
beaver skins from the Indians, whose only use for them 
was to wear them, and who would readily exchange them 



HUDSON'S VOYAGE, 1609 



115 



for trifles. Probably, every common sailor carried back 
with him a valuable pack of furs bought up for a song. 
This first opened men's eyes to the great profits to be 
made by trading in furs, and we now know that there 
were no keener traders than the Hollanders. It was 

probably the most interesting fact 

that the explorers took back with 

them. 

Hudson turned back, though the 

Indians did not let him pass down the 




LIMIT OP HUDSON'S VOYAGE. 



river scathless, for whenever the ship drifted within bow- 
shot, some lurking savage would let fly his arrows at 
her. Then the crew would return the fire ; and so they 
fought their way back to the bay and out to sea again. 
Clearly, some tribes were disposed to be friendly and 
some to drive away the invaders. 

In just one month to a day from the time he had first 
doubled Sandy Hook, Hudson again passed it home- 



116 HUDSON'S VCj^GE, 1009 

ward bound, carrying to his employers hopeful tidings 
of a rich country, pierced by a great navigable river, 
and only waiting to be peopled. The natives were so 
simple that even a cobbler's awl would buy a beaver skin 
worth twenty guilders. There were masts for all navies, 
timber to last for centuries, farms without dikes — every- 
thing, in short, that Holland had not. So said Hudson, 
and he said truly. 

Not in memory of some stay-at-home prince of royal 
blood or bigot king, but of this bold navigator and man 
of action, is this noble river named. Yet, not at once, 
but in after years, Hudson's name was bestowed upon it, 
for at first it was better known as the North Eiver, to 
distinguish it from the South Eiver or Delaware, which 
Hudson had first visited. 6 Even to this day the Hudson 
is familiarly spoken of as the North Eiver. Hudson 
and Champlain have thus for us a real meaning and a 
real history. 

1 Some geographers think that Este- 4 Some think the Half-Moon did not 
van Gomez, Magellan's pilot, saw New get above Hudson. 

York harbor nearly a century before 5 La Hontan, ed. 1703, calls the 

Hudson did ; others as confidently claim Hudson Riviere de Fer (Iron River), 

that honor for Verrazani, the Floren- 6 On this voyage Hudson made his 

tine, in 1524. first landfall near Portland, touched at 

2 Colden's Five Nations, p. 124. Cape Cod, sailed thence to the Chesa- 
s New York Island is described as peake, then, turning back, put into Uel- 

a heap of sand hills among masses of aware Bay. 
rock ; with sandy beach, broken up by 
outcropping ledges ; wild, rough, and 
desolate. 



NEW YORK IN THE CRADLE, 1610-20 



117 



NEW YORK IN THE CRADLE, 1610-26. 

Hudson had to put into an English port on his return, 
where he was detained, but this did not prevent his send- 
ing his report to Holland. In that day an English sub- 
ject could not enter the service of a foreign state without 
his sovereign's permission, and there were now special 
reasons why England should look coldly upon Holland. 




HELL GATE (DUTCH PRINT). 

First of all, the Dutch had started their East India Com- 
pany in opposition to the English. This was considered 
a poor return for the help England had given Holland 
against Spain. Forgetting that there is no friendship in 
trade, the English merchants now called the Hollanders 
ungrateful. It was seen that by helping Holland, Eng- 
land had been building up a rival. 

Then again, Holland was now become the asylum 
for those persecuted Puritans who were being driven 
out of England, and for those Protestants who had 
been driven out of France, by cruel edicts. Though 
this persecution had been going on a long time, its 



118 



NEW YORK IN TI^CKADLE, 1610-26 



increasing bitterness had brought matters to such a 
pass that a Puritan could not hear a sermon in his 
own house without danger of being thrown into pris- 
on for it. The intolerant part of England, therefore, 
looked upon Holland as a sort of Botany Bay, or as 
the home of all the enemies of true religion. 

To the sagacious Dutch merchants Hudson's discovery 
opened a new avenue to commerce, which they were not 




EARLIEST riC'ITUE OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 



slow in following up. Before another year was out, a 
second ship was back in the Hudson trading for furs. 
In 1612 two vessels were sent out, and the next year 
three more, one of which having caught fire and burned 
at Manhattan Island, Block, the master, forthwith set his 
men to building some log huts for winter-quarters, at the 
lower part of the island. 1 They were its first known im- 
provements. He also built a smaller vessel, in which he 
boldly made the dangerous passage through Hell Gate 



NEW YORK IN THE CRADLE, 



1G 10-26 



119 



into Long Island Sound, and out to the island now bear- 
ing his name in remembrance of that exploit. 2 

At about the same time, one Christiansen, who came 
with Block, ascended the river to Hudson's old anchor- 
age, or even farther. On the west side of the river, on 
Patroon's Island, which is a little below Albany, he built 
a trading-house and called it Fort Nassau. 3 No one 
could have more quickly or judiciously seized upon vital 
centres of trade or where time has more fully vindicated 
the first choice. The ocean port, and the distributing 
depot, had been fixed upon at a 
glance and for all time. 

The twin settlements had just 
begun to show some signs of life 
when Argall, of Virginia, on his 
way back from breaking up a 
French colony at Mount Desert, 
saw the Dutch flag flying at 
Manhattan. As the Dutch were 
considered as trespassing on 
English ground, Argall had the 
flag hauled down, after which, as the Dutch claimed to 
be only casual traders, he went his way. 4 

All these were private ventures, but the States Gen- 
eral now asserted its sovereignty by granting an exclu- 
sive trading privilege to certain Hollanders for four 
years, and by giving to the country, between forty and 
forty-five degrees, the name of New Netherland. As re- 
gards the country itself, it was ill chosen. But it was 
the custom. New Spain, New France, and New England 
do convey, however, the idea of planting love of country 
by transplanting a beloved name. 

The first, perhaps most striking, feature of Dutch oc- 




NEW NETHERLAND SEAL. 



120 NEW" YORK IN I ^ CRADLE, 1610-36 

cupation is that they should have dared to separate 
their two settlements by a hundred and fifty miles. It 
must mean that Hudson had really laid the foundation 
of a firm friendship with the Indians. 

Meantime, competition for the Indian trade began. 
The French traders, tk those heroic runners after profita- 
ble adventures," were first on the ground. Smith saw 
French knives and hatchets in the hands of the Indians 
on the lower Susquehanna. That shows us how quickly 
avenues for trade are opened. From the time it had left 
the trader's store at Quebec till it reached the Chesa- 
peake that hatchet may have gone through twenty hands. 
But at a thousand miles from its starting point Smith 
meets it, and is startled, because he sees English domin- 
ion threatened by it. 

At first the French were wise enough not to sell fire- 
arms to the Indians. But to get more furs the Dutch 
foolishly sold guns to the Iroquois, who immediately 
used them against the French, passing the lakes; for 
the French, led by Champlain, had again attacked them 
in one of their strong castles, though not with success, 
as this time Champlain was beaten off and wounded. 
Hate of the French was thus confirmed and strength- 
ened. 5 

Meantime Christiansen had been killed in some quar- 
rel with the Indians, and Fort Nassau deserted for a bet- 
ter site at the mouth of Norman's Kill, two miles below 
Albany. Here the Dutch made their first formal treaty 
with all the neighbor tribes, who, as was their custom, 
dug a hole, into which they cast a hatchet and covered it 
up with earth, in sign of perpetual amity. 

Nothing of formal government had yet appeared ; but 
now comes the newly-created Dutch West India Company, 6 



121 



clothed with almost unlimited powers over New Nether- 
land, which was to be governed in Holland, as Virginia 
had been in England, and colonized only so far as 
would promote the interests of a trading corporation. 
In 1623 the first colony, chiefly Walloons, 7 arrived out. 
Some few remained at Manhattan, some were sent to 
the South (Delaware) River, some to Long Island, and 
some to the Connecticut. Most, however, went up the 




■te-".'- ,F l? 



FIRST SETTLEMENT AT ALBANY. 



Hudson, to where Fort Orange was being built, on the 
present site of Albany, so beginning that city. Scat- 
tering these colonists, in this way, emphasizes the pur- 
pose to draw in trade from many sources. Three great 
rivers had been tapped already. 

Very little concerning the life of the people at this 
time has come to light. They seem to have had no 
diarists among them to jot down each day's doings, like 
Bradford and Winthrop among the Puritans, a band of 
whom had just settled at the bottom of Massachusetts 



122 NEW STORK IN Ti^ < i: \ l>I,K, 1610-26 

Bay, 8 first of all to seek the New World strictly for the 
sake of their religion. If we do not know their removal 
to have been a direct result of Hudson's discovery, the 
two events seem very closely connected ; and we do know 
that accident alone prevented these exiles from settling 
in New Netherlands 

In 1624 the colonists, to use their own words, were 
getting along bravely. In 1625 a shipload of horses, 
cattle, sheep, and swine reached them. They then num- 
bered about two hundred persons. In 1626 Peter 
Minuit was sent out as director-general. Under him 
the island of Manhattan was bought of the Indians for 
sixty guilders' worth of trading goods, or about twenty- 
four dollars of our coin. 10 Minuit, with a council of five 
appointed to assist him, made up the colonial govern- 
ment or government resident, subject to that at home 4 . 
In 1627 overtures were made to Plymouth Colony for 
reciprocal trade, and on going there, subsequently, with 
some display, Secretary de Easieres was well treated by 
those who before had been well treated by his country- 
men. Two lay preachers came out to Manhattan, who 
held services, according to the Dutch Reformed liturgy, 
in a loft, topped out by some captured Spanish bells. 
Fort Amsterdam was built on the site of the Battery. 

Though Holland would appear more tolerant than her 
times, she had by no means reached a full and free 
toleration. Par from it. Intolerance singled out its 
most illustrious victim, when in 1619 the venerable Bar- 
neveldt was unjustly executed for taking sides with 
Arminius against the rigid Calvinists. And the Syn- 
od of Dort approved the sentence. Holland, therefore, 
could not well be more tolerant to her colonies than to 
herself. 



NEW YORK IN THE CRADLE, 1010-26 



123 



1 Fikst Improvements. While dig- 
grim: for the foundations of a new 
building in Sullivan Street (1892), work- 
men unearthed two log huts in a fine 
state of preservation. One was twenty 
feet square and fifteen feet high, huilt 
of squared yellow pine logs, with a flat 
roof of the same material. The other 
was smaller. They were supposed to be 
among the first homesteads erected on 
New York Island. 

2 For this Cruise of Block's, see 
Making of New England, pp. 56, 57. It 
founded the Dutch claim to the Connec- 
ticut River country. 

3 Fort Nassau was only thirty-six 
by twenty-six feet, with a stockade fifty- 
eight feet square and ditch eighteen 
broad. 

4 Dutch Occupation gave rise to 
formal complaint by the North Vir- 
ginia Company. Little, however, came 
of it, except irritation. At that time 
the Dutch were considered to have im- 
pudently slipped themselves into the 
gap left open between the two Virginia 
colonies. In fact, the English title was 
never wholly abandoned. The Dutch 
claimed, however, to have been fre- 



quenting the ' regions of the North 
(Hudson) and South (Delaware) Rivers 
since 159S. 

5 Champlain's Defeat.— Voyages. 
Prince Soc. ed., iii. 123. 

6 Dutch West India Company, char- 
tered 1621, had exclusive rights over all 
Dutch dominions in the Western Hem- 
isphere. 

7 Walloons. Descendants of the an- 
cient inhabitants of the Netherlands ; 
many fled to England and France to es- 
cape Spanish persecution. 

8 Puritans in New England. See 
Making of New England, p. 67. 

9 The States-General, April 11, 
1620, refused Robinson and his associ- 
ates permission to settle in New Nether- 
land. 

10 The Delawares have a tradition 
that their ancestors lived on Manhattan 
Island at the coming of the Dutch. Ac- 
cording to them Man-a-ha-tonh means 
the place where there is icood for bows 
and arroivs. At the lower end of the 
island was a hickory grove of peculiar 
strength and toughness.— Rev. Albert 
Anthony, a Delaware. 



MINUIT, VAN TWILLER, KIEFT. 



The genius of Washington Irving has turned the whole 
history of Dutch rule in New York into a jest. And noth- 
ing is so effective as ridicule. Since Irving made us laugh, 
we can hardly believe that history to have a serious side. 
It is always a comedy. The Dutch governors drink, swear, 
and swagger about like so many Jack Falstaffs, in the 
ale-house, until the notion has become more or less deeply 
rooted that they were a parcel of good-natured but idiotic 
buffoons. Truth is sometimes spoken in jest. With Irv- 



m 



mini it, v.w tw^i.ki:, KIKF'l' 



ing it is different. Truth v 




HUDSON KIVEK SETTLEMENTS. 



great landholders. 5 Other 



mishes in the jest. There is 
only a grotesque likeness 
left. 1 

The great Puritan ('mi- 
gration of 1628-30 soon 
led to the crowding back of 
the Dutch from the Con- 
necticut, where they had 
built a fort, on the site of 
Hartford.-' This the Eng- 
lish hemmed in first by 
building another below it, 
and next by making strong 
settlements above it, so 
cutting off its supplies on 
one side and its trade on 
the other. The Dutch, in- 
deed, made a show of force, 
but used none. They had 
been outgeneralled. 

In 1630 Eillian Van 
Rensselaer, a director in 
the company, bought a 
large tract of land lying 
next north of Fort Orange,' 
to which he sent out col- 
onists well provided with 
cattle and farming tools. 
His purchase was called 
Rensselaerwick, 4 and the 
title he then took of patroon 
soon extended to other 

purchases were made for him 



MINUIT, VAN TWILLER, KIEFT 125 

on both sides of tlie Hudson, thus including much of 
the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and Columbia. In 
1631 Michael Pauw, another director, bought up the 
whole of Staten Island, as well as what is now Jersey 
City. These patroons were rich men, whom the com- 
pany encouraged by liberal inducements to plant colo- 
nies within the colony. The company soon had reason 
to repent its liberality, as these patroons grew to be like 
little lords of little states, and to behave as such toward 
the company. Their tenants were mostly ignorant peas- 
ants, picked up in country villages at home ; their system 
of landholding similar to that of the old feudal times. 
This plan founded a landed aristocracy, which continued 
two hundred years or more. 

Instead, then, of prosperous villages being pushed 
forward by their own citizens, we see here two or 
three forts, over which the company exercised a semi- 
martial rule, and two or three feudal manors, with ten- 
ants grouped around a proprietor, whose word, within 
his own estates, was also law. Farms were, indeed, 
granted or let, but the owners or lessees were expected 
to bring their rents to Manhattan, as the company pre- 
ferred scattering the population in this manner to bring- 
ing it together in villages. We have seen a similar plan 
pursued in Virginia with like results. Here it was done 
to save trouble and expense, in carrying on many local 
governments. As the government itself was purely 
arbitrary there was no going behind it. In short, it was 
an attempt to build up a huge commercial concern, regard- 
less of the fact that the whole structure rested upon labor, 
and that sooner or later labor would assert its power. 

Director Minuit gave way in 1633 to Director Van 
Twiller. The same ship brought Everard Bogardus, the 



L26 MIM IT, VAN THLEU, KIEFT 

first clergyman, and Adam Roelandson, the first school- 
master. 

The farmers, who were forbidden to trade in furs, first 
began planting tobacco, which all Dutchmen, as well as 
all Indians, freely used ; but short trial soon showed wheat 
to be by far the surest and best crop. Of this cereal the 
company, or the patroons, took a tenth as quit-rent. 
There were no better farmers than the Dutch, and in New 
Netherland they kept up their old reputation for economy 
and thrift. 

So we see that while the fur trade was certainly a mo- 
nopoly, farming, as managed by the patroons, was practi- 
cally another. By and by, these cunning patroons pre- 
tended to a right to trade for furs themselves in spite of 
the company. Therefore, as a whole, the colonists were de- 
pendent upon one monopoly or another. Men who work 
to enrich others seldom put forth their best efforts. It 
was so here. The patroons' tenantry raised only surplus 
enough to feed the company's dependents — that is to say, 
all those who gave their labor for their bread. 

Here then, every spring, we should find vessels un- 
loading at Manhattan (just christened New Amsterdam 
out of love for that more famous seaport of the father- 
land), goods suitable for the Indian trade — such as 
blankets, woollens, spirits, guns, powder and shot, 
hatchets, knives, beads, etc. ; and for the colonists, cloth- 
ing, tools, dried and salted meats, seeds, guns, beer, 
spirits, etc. We should see a fleet of boats busily en- 
gaged in carrying these goods up the river to Fort Orange. 
At the same time a long string of canoes would be com- 
ing down the Mohawk with the winter's catch of beaver, 
each canoe having on board forty packs, weighing fifty 
pounds, and actually worth a hundred French crowns 



MINUIT, VAN TWILLER, KIEFT 127 

each. On arriving near the Cohoes Falls, which block 
the month of the river, the canoes would land on the 
south bank, each savage shoulder his pack, the squaws 
load themselves down with the camp utensils, and all 
take the well-worn path across the scrubby plain to Fort 
Orange, about one day's march away. In time this soli- 
tary landing-place grew to a trading-post and straggling 
hamlet, the hamlet to a village, the village to the city of 
Schenectady ; this path in the wilderness became in turn 
a military road, a turnpike, and finally the pioneer rail- 
way of the State. 

Peter Esprit-Radisson, a Frenchman, who had lived 
with the Mohawks, and who made this trip in their com- 
pany, says of it: "The fourth day we came to the fort 
of Orange, wher we weare very well received, or rather our 
castors (beavers), every one courting us ; and was nothing 
but pruins and reasins and tobacco plentifully, and all 
for ' ho, ho,' which is thanks, adding ' nianounkaj thanke 
you." 

The beaver skins found ready sale, not for ready 
money, which had no value to an Indian, except to hang 
in his own or his squaw's ears, but for some of the trad- 
ing goods in this list. It is at least doubtful if there ever 
was such a thing as an honest Indian trader, and as he 
fixed the price both of what he bought and what he sold 
his profits were very great. They were so large that every 
out-settler who could entice an Indian into his cabin be- 
came a contraband fur-trader. 

On their home voyages ships went to the West Indies 
for sugar or to New England for dry fish. For some 
years the Plymouth Pilgrims supplied New Netherland 
with tobacco obtained from Virginia ships calling at Ply- 
mouth on their way home. This lasted only until the 



128 MINUIT, VAX TA|«.LERj KII I 1 

masters found out the way to Manhattan for themselves. 
The Pilgrims also furnished the Dutch with cows and 
sheep until the jealousy of those who imported Dutch 
cattle broke off that trade also. 

Under Van Twiller a plain wooden church was built 
at Xew Amsterdam. Sundry other improvements were 
planned by him. Patroon Pauw's rights to Staten Island 
were secured to the company and the South liiver es- 
tablishment was strengthened. Van Twiller is repre- 
sented as being greedy, arbitrary, obstinate, and full of 
the insolence of office. His removal, therefore, in 1637 
caused little regret, though those who said that any 
change must be for the better, soon found out their 
mistake. 

"When Van Twiller went out William Kieft came in. 
Van Twiller was slow, but Kieft far too hasty. The 
colony, however, began to throw out vigorous shoots here 
and there. For instance, the year 1639 saw De Vries 
settle his colony at Staten Island and Thomas Belcher 
take up land where Brooklyn stands to-day. Yet, as the 
policy of the directors had been to grant farms rather 
than to lay out towns, few of these were even begun un- 
til a dear-bought experience proved that to scatter the 
population was to invite its destruction. In fact, the 
colony owed most of its later misfortunes to this same un- 
wise dispersion. 

There seem to be two opinions about Kieft. Outside 
the colony he was thought both wise and prudent ; inside 
the very opposite. He had been a merchant whose rep- 
utation for probity was none of the best. To a company 
of merchants it seemed most fitting, no doubt, to put a 
merchant over a trading colony. Kieft showed that gov- 
erning was not his trade. His ten years' rule was stormy, 



129 



both within and without. He made enemies by whole- 
sale. He treated the Indians wickedly. He cheated the 
people abominably, so that to them he was always a little 
despot. Under Kieft the people first began to stand up 
for their rights — a sure sign that he was trampling them 
under foot. Kieft could be temperate or he could be 
ferocious, but always avaricious. Kieft did some things 
deserving of praise, yet in his case the bad seems to out- 
weigh the good tenfold. 

Yet the settlers were not without blame, since neither 
positive prohibition nor the dictates of common pru- 
dence could stop their selling guns to the Indians. They 
also sold them rum ; so that when the Indian was in- 
furiated with the white man's drink he revenged himself 
with the white man's weapon. Rum made him a maniac, 
and he did right to call it a devil. If he turned his weapon 
against friend or foe alike it was the fault of those who 
made him " put an enemy in his mouth to steal away his 
brains." 

Director Kieft was no sooner settled in his place than 
he began to show himself in his true colors. Hitherto 
a conciliatory policy had been pursued toward the In- 
dians, as was most wise. Kieft, to raise money, now took 
it into his head to exact tribute of them, or tax money, 
as if they had been citizens, and began with the Rari- 
tans. The Raritans resisted, and some were killed. 
They retaliated by raiding Staten Island. Kieft then 
put a price upon their heads. This did not stop them. 
A blacksmith Avas killed at his own door. Kieft was 
eager to chastise these insolent savages, who thus set his 
proclamations at naught, but for want of men and money 
his hands were tied. The colonists, he reflected, could 
furnish both ; so he called them together, and they chose 
9 



L30 



MINUIT, VAN UWLLES, KIEFT 



twelve good and true men to act for them. It was the 
first time a director had deigned to consult the popular 
will. The people saw their opportunity. Here was a prin- 
ciple at stake, and it was now first asserted. The twelve 
demanded a voice in the government, if they were to 
light or pay for it. To this the shifty Kieft agreed, though 
he never kept his word, if, indeed, he had ever meant to. 

Up to this time the 
colony may be called 
exclusively Dutch. It 
can be called so no 
longer, for many who 
had found New Eng- 
land too intolerant, or 
too hard to get a liv- 
ing in, now sought for 
easier homes in New 
Netherland. S o in e , 
like Anne Hutchinson, 
Captain John Under- 
bill, and Lady Debo- 
rah Moody, had played 
no unimportant part in the religious disputes of those 
times. Southampton, on Long Island, was settled by 
these New England emigrants in 1640. 

Let us see what sort of place Manhattan, or New 
Amsterdam, had become. Isaac Jogues, 7 a missionary, 
escaped from the Iroquois, says that at Manhattan he 
found" a dilapidated fort, garrisoned by sixty soldiers, 
and containing a stone church and the director-general's 
house, together with storehouses and barracks. Near 
it Avere ranges of small houses, occupied chiefly by 
mechanics and laborers ; while the dwellings of the 




FATHEK ISAAC JOGUES. 



MINUIT, VAN TWILLER, KIEFT 131 

remaining colonists, numbering in all four or five hun- 
dred, were scattered here and there about the island and 
the neighboring shores. The settlers were of different 
sects and nations, but chiefly Dutch Calvinists. Kieft 
told his guest that no less than eighteen different lan- 
guages were spoken at Manhattan." 

The stone church referred to in this account, together 
with a stone inn and a distillery, was Kieft's work. It 
will be seen that the infant metropolis already assumed 
something of its cosmopolitan character. It could not 
be a unit in thought, feeling, or interest. Besides these 
material things the colony received an important addition 
this } T ear by the coming of Domine Magapolensis 8 to 
Rensselaerwick, of which place he became the spiritual 
head and venerated guide. 

Stormy times were at hand. As usual, Kieft dealt 
with them in his hot-headed way. One day, in 1643, 
Yan Voorst, a Dutchman, was slain, while quietly at 
work in his field, by an Indian, who had just been robbed 
by another Dutchman. Kieft instantly demanded the 
murderer of his tribe. 

With the Indians homicide was not a public, but a 
private, crime, for which the murdered man's friends 
might take revenge in their own way. The tribe, there- 
fore, refused the demand, though offering instead to pay 
a certain sum by way of vicarious atonement. This is 
quite in line with the usage of the most civilized nations 
of to-day. 9 But Kieft would have nothing but the slayer 
himself. 

It so happened that some river Indians had fled from 
the Mohawks to the protection of the Dutch. These 
fugitives lay in the neighborhood of Manhattan Island. 
Kieft determined to make the innocent suffer for the 



132 



MINUIT, VAX TELLER, KIEFT 



guilty. Iii vain the more prudent De Vries warned him 
to "let this work alone." In vain lie told Kieft that he 
would only murder his own people. Kieft was bent on 
making a bloody example. An indiscriminate massacre 
of men, women, and children ensued, eighty at one place 
and forty at another. This dark deed banded the neigh- 
bor tribes together for revenge. First one settlement, 

then another, was 
ravaged. Very soon 
it was unsafe for a 
Dutch man to stir out- 
side the forts, and 
what De Vries had 
predicted Kieft saw 
come true. 

A hollow peace was 
followed by a new 
outbreak. The Ind- 
ians on the river were 
still angry and dissat- 
isfied. They began 
firing on the boats 
passing between Man- 
hattan and Fort Or- 
ange. Then the reoccupied places were again visited 
with fire and slaughter. 

Kieft could raise but not still this tempest. Again 
he was obliged to ask help of the people. It Avas a com- 
mon danger, so the call did not go unheeded. It was 
met by the election of eight deputies, who, for a brief 
time, were as good as law-makers, and whose measures 
for carrying on the war were promptly approved. 
Moneys were raised and soldiers enrolled. Some fifty 




THE PATROON. DE VRIES. 



KIEFT 133 

of these were all English, under that Captain Underbill 
who had fought so valiantly in the Pequot war. A 
timely reinforcement of regular troops also arrived from 
the West Indies. 

Meantime, the New England colonies, fearing this out- 
break might reach them also, formed a combination for 
mutual protection. 10 It was first of all a military league. 
There had been more or less ill feeling all along between 
English and Dutch, which a spark might fan into a 
flame. The English thought the Dutch had no business 
to have crowded themselves into the very centre of the 
continent in the first place. That they should go on 
strengthening themselves there was hardly to be borne. 
Each accused the other of encroaching on what did not 
belong to them ; and, in withstanding the Dutch, Con- 
necticut claimed only to be defending the common cause. 
Still, they had bought and sold with each other until 
a stop had been put to the sale of English cattle in 
New Netherland, at the demand of the local merchants. 
This act naturally aroused quick resentment. There 
being, then, neither good-will nor friendly commerce 
between the rivals, the league had the Dutch also in 
view. 

Two years of fighting made Kieft as eager for peace as 
he had ever been for Avar. Utter ruin stared the colonists 
in the face. So did famine. Trade had been stopped, 
farming stopped, many lives lost, much property de- 
stroyed, and to all appearance the Indians were as un- 
subdued as ever. So it was Kieft who had to sue for 
peace. This was finally had through the agency of the 
Mohawks, to w T hom, it is understood, the hostile Indians 
dared not deny a request equivalent to an order. Here 
again we see the influence of the great Iroquois league. 



134 



MINUIT, VAN TWILLER, KIEFT 



But before peace came progress had been put back many 
years by Kieft's headlong folly. 

The cause of this unholy war" was traced to the getting 
of an Indian drunk so that he might be the easier robbed 
of his furs. Its destructive character was due to arm- 
ing him as well as the whites themselves. 

None too soon for the public weal Kieft was removed. 
He was drowned while on his way home to Holland, 
with a fortune of 400,000 guilders. When the ship was 
going to pieces Kieft turned to some of his fellow pas- 
sengers and said : "Friends, I have been unjust toward 
you ; can you forgive me ? " 



1 Knickerbocker's History of New 
York, published in 1S08. Irving bor- 
rowed his nom de plume from the 
Knickerbockers of Schaghticoke, N. Y. 

2 Dutch troubles with the Plymouth 
and Boston colonists are treated of in 
Making of New England, pp. 187, 191, 
192 (note). 

3 Fort Orange, named for the 
Prince of Orange ; a rude structure of 
logs on the site of the Phoenix Hotel, 
Albany ; it was to New York what Mon- 
treal was to (Quebec. 

4 Rensselaerwick, first two miles 
above Fort Orange, now part of Albany. 

5 Patroon, a title meaning a great 
landed proprietor, like that of seignior 
in Canada, or lord of the manor in 
England. It was continued in the 
Rensselaer family down to the Revolu- 
tion, perhaps later, but was too aristo- 
cratic for the independent spirit brought 
about by that event. 

6 The South River will be treated 
of under New Jersey. See Index refer- 
enc «. 

7 Isaac Jogues was probably the first 
white to pass Lake George, which he did 



(1642) as a captive. The story of his 
captivity is told in his letters (.V. Y. 
W.<t. Soo. Coll.) ; his description of New 
Netherland is in the Documentary His- 
tory of N. Y. ; reprinted by J. G. Shea, 1862. 
In 1646 Jogues again passed Lake George 
on his way to the Mohawks, never to 
return. At this time he named it Lac 
St. Sacrament. Morse's Gazetteer, article 
Lake George, says that the French 
"were at the pains to procure this 
water for sacramental uses in all their 
churches in Canada." 

"Domine John Megapolensis is 
the author of A Short Sketch of the Mo- 
hawk Indians, in Hazard, i., 517-26. He 
later removed to New Amsterdam. 

9 The United States has paid a 
money indemnity to Italy for her citi- 
zens killed by a mob at New Orleans, 
and taken one from Chile (1892) for 
American sailors killed at Valparaiso. 

10 New England Confederacy. 
See Making of New England, p. 242. 

1 > The cause of this war is gjven by 
Winthrop, History of N. England, ii., 
116, 117. 



STU YVES ANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE 135 



STUYVESANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE, 1647-64. 



Kieft's mismanagement was a heavy blow to those hon- 
est burghers in Holland who were finding nothing but 
losses where they had been looking for profits. 

Having failed with a merchant the company decided 
to try a soldier. Peter Stuyvesant had been governor of 
Curagoa, had shown 
himself both brave and 
able, and had lost a leg 
in its service before be- 
ing called to this post. 
Much was, therefore, 




SEAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 



expected of him. 

Stuyvesant was a far 
better man for the place 
than Kieft, though he, 
too, despised the rabble 
and all its yearning after 
more liberty. As a sol- 
dier he had been in the 
habit of saying to one man do this, and to another do 
that, so, though kind-hearted, he was imperious, flew into 
a passion whenever crossed, believed the people were 
better off when minding their own business and letting 
the company's alone ; and, in short, quite as sternly set 
his face against any and every innovation. Still, for all 
that, the cause of popular government was making prog- 
ress. 

There were now, perhaps, two thousand persons in the 
colony who lived in constant fear of their lives. So long 



VS6 



TUYVESANT, AND 



Op 



OF DUTCH RULE 



Dutch got alon 
neighbors. 



as fche [ndians could drive them into their two or three 
forts at will, how could they pretend to be masters ? This 
might well be a source of anxiety, since in thirty years 
fche Dutch had not been able to do what the New Eng- 
enders had done in four — subdue their savage neighbors. 
Some allowance should be made for the claim that the 
with their Indians better than their 
In Kieft's time all the river tribes, besides 
those of Long Island, were leagued against them. If 

the Mohawks had 
not come to their 
rescue — Indian 
against Indian — 
the Dutch could 
hardly have held 
their own. Peace 
with the terrible 
Mohawks proved 
their only true safe- 
guard. Yet it was 
about the only sa- 
gacious thing in Dutch-Indian policy that we have met 
with so far. 

Bad management had led to a loss of faith in the 
company, too. As nothing could be had from it except 
what was extorted by the fear of losing all, the people had 
come to look upon it as their oppressor. To transfer their 
dislike to the governor was quite natural, because to them 
the governor was the company, and had he not cheated 
them time and again ? They were continually comparing 
themselves with the New Englanders, who, at least, had 
a voice in their own affairs. 

They decided to appeal to the States General for redress, 




GOVEKNOK'S HOUSE AND CIU'KCH, NEW YORK. 



STUYVESANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE 137 

although they well know there was nothing that would 
make Stuyvesant half so angry ; yet there was no one 
else to whom they could appeal. The company was both 
deaf and dumb ; Stuy vesant mocked them. Were they 
still citizens of the great republic, or only subjects of the 
avaricious Dutch company? Would the republic con- 
tinue to permit its citizens to be held in this sort of 
bondage ? 




THE STADT HUTS. 



In 1649 the settlers, therefore, made a vigorous stand 
against the monopoly. In convention assembled they 
made their petition direct to the States General to grant 
them suitable burgher government, more like that of the 
Fatherland, with other relief from oppressive restrictions 
upon trade. Their appeal was heard and sent down to 
the company, with certain recommendations looking to 
their relief. The reply was angry, contemptuous, insolent. 
Yet it is instructive. After saying that they had " already 
connived as much as possible at the many impertinences 
of some restless spirits," Stuyvesant was strictly charged 
to punish all who should presume to hold " clandestine 



138 STUYVESANT, AND Vj0t> OF DUTCH RULE 

m« < -t i 1 1^^,^ or, in other words, should dare assemble to 
discuss their grievances together " in proportion to their 
crimes." Armed with these orders Stuyvesant became 
harder than ever. 

Within two years the people were clamoring for Stuy- 
vesant's removal. They prayed the States General to 
take the government into its own hands. Out of these 
complaints came some unwilling concessions ; New Am- 
sterdam was allowed burgher government, or home rule, 
instead of being exclusively under that of the company, 
as before ; the duty was taken off tobacco, and African 
slaves were allowed to be brought in. 

Stnyvesant went about his duties like an honest but 
headstrong man, who has been used to breaking down all 
opposition by the mere force of his own will. The colony 
was in want of everything and its treasury empty. To 
raise money the people must be taxed. Submit to this 
without representation they would not, and so declared. 
They were, therefore, allowed to choose nine deputies, 
who should advise with the governor and council, 
and on certain occasions act as judges. But again they 
found they had given up the substance for the shad- 
ow. Stuyvesant wanted their assistance, not their ad- 
vice. 

Other disturbing causes there were. As the State 
church the Dutch Reformed Church had been protected 
and fostered. But other Christians desired the privilege 
of public worship too. Stuyvesant forbade their assem- 
bling until the company laid down this noble and golden 
rule for him : " Let every one remain free as long as he 
is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproach- 
able, and as long as he does not offend others or op- 
pose the government." He also forbade the mustering 



STUYVESANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE 139 






of the burgher guard at New Amsterdam, resenting, it 
would seem, their appearing under arms without his 
order. 

War having broken out between England and Holland 
(1G53), New Amsterdam was made secure against sur- 
prise from the land side by carrying a stockade twelve 
feet high, in which there were two block -houses for gates, 
across the island. It extended along the present line of 
Wall Street. 
This fortifica- ( — v ■_ 

t i o n enclosed 
what was as yet 
only a little vil- 
lage, in spite 
of its great 
name, as by 
walking a mile 
one might have 
gone all the way 
round it. Out- 
side of this were 
the farms. Stuy- 
vesant's fears were by no means groundless. First he 
saw Fort Good Hope, 1 at Hartford, seized by the Eng- 
lish ; then Fort Casimir, 2 on the Delaware, surprised by 
the Swedes. Collision between the Dutch and English 
colonists was, however, averted by peace. But war also 
broke out with the Pviver Indians, who slew or took cap- 
tive hundreds of people. Even New Amsterdam did not 
escape. 

This war at last awoke the scattered colonists to the 
need of living in villages for self-protection. Jamaica, 
Bergen, Esopus, 3 and New Harlem were begun, or estab- 




OLD HOUSE, NEW YORK, BUILT 1668. 



140 STUYVESANT, AND K.X^OF DUTCH RULE 

lished. Still Later, in 1661, that Arendt Van Corlaer 
whom the Iroquois hold in such high esteem as the just 
white man, settled at the great flats of the Mohawk, which 
presently took the name of Schenectady. 4 

In December, 1G53, another convention of the people, 
in disregard of the prohibition, met at New Amsterdam 
to lay their many grievances before the States General. 
Chief of these was the making of laws without their 
consent. Hot words passed between the delegates and 
director, who, after venting his spleen, abruptly ordered 
them to disperse. 

A new trouble arose out of the claim that Long Island 
belonged to the Duke of York. 5 And that claim, if al- 
lowed, would put an end to Dutch rule there, unless the 
Dutch were ready to go to Avar about it, which nobody 
believed. 

Stuyvesant now had his hands full. Long Island was 
a house divided against itself. At the east end it was all 
English ; at the west, all Dutch. More or less English 
lived also in Jamaica, Middleburg, and Heemstede. Now 
in all the disputes with Connecticut, the Long Island 
English mostly sided with their own countrymen, as was 
natural. Their remoteness enabled them to assert and 
hold a sort of independent position. So, when it was 
claimed that the island belonged to the Duke of York the 
English there at once threw themselves upon the protec- 
tion of Connecticut. Stuyvesant knew not which way to 
turn/' If he tried force, all New England would fall upon 
him. It was therefore agreed to leave the matter to the 
home governments. But all unknown to Stuyvesant, 
the days of Dutch dominion were already numbered. 

To enforce this claim, not only to Long Island, but all 
New Netherland, the Duke had been secretly fitting 




NEW NETHERLAND 

From the Map of 

A. VANDERDONCK. 

1656. 



NEW NETUERLANI) IN 1G5G. 



142 STUYVESANT, AND B0t OF DUTCH RULE 

out a fleet in England. As admiral of the royal navy lie 
could do this unsuspected. Besides, who would have 
believed such an attack on a friendly power possible? 
Rumors, indeed, reached Holland, but passed unheeded. 7 
The fleet crossed the Atlantic. Levies were making in 
New England to assist it. Stuyvesant heard of its near 
approach, but would not believe its purpose was hostile 






•4 ^r-^ 

[ 



In Gii^VnxiItliesr bxiried 




btutvesant's tomb. 



until it was actually in the bay and the port blockaded. 
On August 29th he was summoned to surrender. Stuyve- 
sant wanted to fight, but the people did not. The surprise 
had been so complete that no time was left for prepara- 
tion. Satisfied that resistance would be folly, Stuyve- 
sant sadly yielded up the fort, though he said he would 
rather have been carried out of it dead. 

The Dutch soldiers were shipped off to Holland, the 
inhabitants required to take an oath of allegiance to Great 
Britain. In the Duke's honor New Amsterdam was ofli- 



STU YVES ANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE 143 

cially named New York. Fort Orange fell soon after and 
was rechristened Albany. 8 Long Island was now per- 
manently annexed, the vexations Connecticut boundary 
settled, a code of laws prepared, liberty of conscience 
guaranteed, and in all things Dutch rule as completely 
set aside as if it had never been. 

At New York a mayor and aldermen took theplace of 
burgomaster and schepens, though the difference was 
more in name than in fact. Thomas Willett, 9 formerly 
of Plymouth Colony, was made first mayor. 

No government could well be more despotic than that 
now set up in New York, it being now a one-man power 
both within and without. From the Duke himself little, 
indeed, was to be hoped for, except that in choosing his 
governors he should choose wisely. The people had no 
voice whatever. The country was looked upon as a con- 
quered province, subject to the grace of the conqueror. 
All the slow steps by which the inhabitants had secured 
a foothold in the government had actually led to nothing. 

New York is estimated to have had, at the conquest, 
from six to eight thousand inhabitants, no very great 
showing, certainly, for the work of fifty years. 

In four years Governor Nicolls, who had led the invad- 
ing forces, went back to England. He was succeeded by 
Francis Lovelace, younger brother of the author of the 
famous lines, 

" Stone walls do not a prison make, 
Nor iron bars a cage." 

But the fate of war now took a sudden turn in favor 
of the Dutch. Early in August, 1673, a Dutch fleet, of 
seven ships, learning that New York was in no state to 
resist, sailed up to the city. The Dutch inhabitants could 



144 STUYVESANT, AND EN^OF DUTCH RULE 

not hide their joy. When appealed to to fight they an- 
swered by spiking their own cannon. Resistance was 
therefore vain. Yet the English captain, one Manning, 
could not bring himself to yield without firing a shot. 
1 \n >adsides were exchanged between iieet and fort. Then 
six hundred men were landed, whom the citizens, to the 
number of four hundred, speedily joined, and all marched 





J 4«iHhJ ImWm 

figs ££*&■■&=} t^mM^^ 



■ss^sss^g^s^- 



MILLER'S PLAN OP NEW YORK IN 1G95. 



to the fort. To this imposing display of force Manning 
was obliged to submit. 

The conquerors hastened to undo everything that the 
English had done. A sort of military rule was set up, 
with Captain Colve as acting head, until the home gov- 
ernment should be heard from. All the important towns 
joyfully renewed their old allegiance. But their triumph 
was as short as it had been easy, for in October, 1674, 
Colve received an order to restore the colony to the Eng- 
lish, who, thenceforth, remained undisputed masters. 



STUYVESANT, AND END OF DUTCH RULE 145 

By this time the population of the whole province had 
risen to about twelve thousand, mostly Dutch, but liberal- 
ly mixed with English, Scotch, French, Germans, Swedes, 
and Blacks. The English, of course, had established the 
Church of England as State church, when they came into 
power. Those who were already in the province were 
mostly Congregationalists or Presbyterians. Then there 
were Dutch Calvinists and French Calvinists, besides 
Lutherans. In New York City the French held worship 
in their own language. There were four hundred houses 
there. The government was there ; the courts were there ; 
and it was already cosmopolitan. 



1 Connect the history of this fort by 
the Index references. 

2 See Dutch and Swedes on the Dela- 
ware. 

3 Esopus, now Kingston, was the 
most important post between New York 
and Albany. Its position drew to it 
much of the Indian trade, and that made 
it the scene of frequent quarrels between 
the settlers and the Indians. 

4 Schenectady. By the intervention 
of Cohoes Falls to free navigation of the 
Mohawk, a portage across the angle 
formed by this river with the Hudson 
became necessary. See previous chap- 
ter. Look at your map. Schenectady 
was long the frontier town. It bore a 
strategic relation, either peaceful or war- 
like, to the country west of it, as all 
traders' goods and all military supplies 
had to be collected here. 

5 Royal Grant from Charles II. to 
the Duke of York, covering Long Isl- 
'and, Hudson River, and the country 
between the Connecticut and Delaware, 

10 



was made in 16(54. See Poore's Char- 
ters. 

6 Stuyvesant tried to reconcile these 
differences. It is certain that he made 
all the advances ; it is equally true that 
the New England governors treated his 
advances co!dly. Their answers were 
extremely diplomatic. Many letters may 
be found in the Massachusetts archives 
of this period. 

7 It is said that Stuyvesant also had 
notice of this fleet. 

8 Albany, another title of the Duke 
of York, had also been called Beaver- 
wick, or Beavertoun. Its original Indian 
name of Scagh-negh-ta-da (end of the 
pine woods) was transferred to the town 
by the Mohawk— Schenectady. 

9 Thomas Willett had lived in 
Leyden. The Pilgrims put him in charge 
of their trading-house at Penobscot, un- 
til the French drove him away. He left 
New York for Rehoboth, Mass., when 
the Dutch took that place, 167-3. His 
grave is in East Providence, R. L 



140 LANDMARKS OF .LONG ESLAND 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND. 

According to very old tradition, the Indians of Man- 
hattan could once cross over to Long Island on the rocks 
of Hell Gate. If we scan the chain of islands now 
stretching oil* from Long Island toward the Connecticut 
shore, and note its direction, it is difficult not to believe 
that this, too, was once unbroken until the sea, in its 
rage, broke through. And this theory leads to the con- 
clusion that Long Island once formed part of the main- 
land. 

The changes human history has to record are scarcely 
less violent or startling, for here one race has disap- 
peared at the coming of another. As the ocean has s\\ al- 
lowed up the land, so the white race has rolled over and 
engulfed the red. 

For a quarter of a century Long Island was a bom 1 
of contention between English and Dutch. Some two- 
thirds of the island was in English hands, one-third in 
Dutch ; and even this small section was not always loyal 
to the Dutch interests or Dutch rule. Politic; d as well 
as geographical reasons would seem, therefore, to have 
pointed to a union with New England rather than New 
York. 

Long it lay untouched by either English or Dutch. 
For both there was land enough and to spare on the 
main. And, as compared with the main, this land was 
mostly poor. For the English it lay too far off; and 
though it nearly touched Manhattan, at the west, the 
Dutch seem, at first, not to have looked that way.' 

Peopled the island was, and in spots even populous, 
yet the natives were much feared as being both cruel and 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 



147 



treacherous, until time proved that, like other men, they 
also could be friends or foes, according as they Avere well 
or ill used. And yet they were not precisely like other 
men, because they were so quick to resent an injury, and 
so revengeful by nature, that so long as the Indians were 
powerful the whites never felt quite at their ease among 
them. 2 

Living mostly on what nature provided, for they de- 
spised manual labor, their numerous villages were usu- 
ally pitched as near as might be to the great oyster or 




LONG ISLAND SETTLEMENTS. 



clam beds, which furnished them abundant food both 
summer and winter, and also with the blue and white 
cockle-shells which made their wampum so highly prized 
for its exquisite workmanship. Deer roamed the woods, 
sea-fowl haunted the marshes, fishes swarmed in the 
creeks and bays ; so that these rude and simple beings 
had only to go to the woods, the sands, or the waters for 
their daily food. 

Very little more was known of the island except that 
the summers were cooler and the winters warmer than 
at Hartford or Boston. Less snow fell. At any rate, the 
climate was better than the bleak New England coast. 



148 LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 

And it was reasoned that where red men could live well 
without labor, white men could live better with it. 

Yet for a long time none except traders ventured to go 
on the island, probably because of the bad name that the 
Indians had gained. It is hard to believe that their 
doing so, at last, arose from their feeling too much 
crowded in towns not yet a dozen years old. Yet this 
was the reason they gave. 

Settlement began in earnest, at both ends of the island, 
at nearly the same time, by both English and Dutch, for 
though one man is found here and another there at an 
earlier date, 3 the Dutch had not built a single town up 
to the year 1640. The reason for this has been pointed 
out elsewhere. The reason for English migration is 
as follows: In New England, where the people had 
been, on the contrary, crowded into towns, hard times 
and scant room had turned the thoughts of many to re- 
moval. In New England there were no large bodies of 
good land contiguous to the towns, except in the Con- 
necticut Valley. And in large towns all the best lands 
had been so quickly taken up that late comers fared 
but badly. These reasoned that a poor man must always 
be poor, as in the Old Country. A craving for more land 
seems to have grown up from the moment these immi- 
grants first stepped on shore and looked around them, 
as if every man's ambition to be a landholder was kin- 
dled by the very air he breathed. 

Many had formed views uoav called socialistic. These 
advocated the idea of a community where all should share, 
and share alike, rich and poor. As that could not be in 
New England, they looked about them for another home. 
Some of Lynn, in Massachusetts, made choice of Long- 
Island (which they supposed good English ground yet 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 149 

unoccupied), and after agreeing with the alleged proprie- 
tor's agent for a suitable tract of land there, a party was 
sent off to locate it, erect buildings, and so smooth the 
way for the coming of the rest. 

The Massachusetts government did not like to see their 
people leaving them in this manner, and tried hard to 
turn them from their design ; but the spirit of unrest 
was abroad, and it could not be stayed. Indeed, it soon 
became an epidemic. 

These pioneer settlers first went to the west end of the 
island, and had even set up a house or two, when the 
Dutch came and drove them off as trespassers. Some 
were imprisoned, but soon liberated. 4 

Now, as the Dutch themselves were regarded as in- 
truders by many, this act caused great indignation. It 
strengthened the secret dislike already felt for the Dutch 
by both high and low ; and the governors of the New 
England colonies held sharp language with the Dutch 
governor about it. Yet neither dared go further than 
words. 

Instead of giving up their design, however, the Lynn 
men then went to the extreme east end of the island, as far 
away as possible from the Dutch, there to begin the set- 
tlement of Southampton. 5 Perhaps they had been told 
to go ahead and fear nothing. At any rate, they behaved 
as if they felt sure of support should it be needed. 
When they got to their destination, they found Lion 
Gardiner, a former commandant of Say brook Fort, and 
a tried soldier, at work making himself a home on the 
island now bearing his name, to which he had but 
lately removed. Thus strengthened, they fell to build- 
ing at once. 

Before leaving Lynn these people had agreed upon 



L50 LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 

certain rules of government, to bo put in force; when they 
should be settled. These will be referred to by and by. 
Soon after they were joined by the Reverend Abraham 
Pierson, their pastor. In this remote corner of the island 
the settlers could now snap their fingers at the Dutch. 
They were now as much a body politic as the Pilgrims 
had been at Plymouth, and quite as free of care for the 
great world without. 

These Lynn men had been driven from their hist 
choice, because the Dutch lay claim not only to this 
island, but also to every thing between the Connecticut 
and Delaware Rivers. How, then, came the English to go 
there? They went under an English grant to Sir Will- 
iam Alexander, 7 by which Long Island, as well as Nan- 
tucket and Martha's Vineyard, was included in a royal 
grant of Nova Scotia. This looks something like attach- 
ing Bermuda to Virginia. Whether it happened through 
ignorance or design is not clear, but, at any rate, it 
saved the island to the English in the end, as it drew the 
line between those who submitted to the Dutch claim 
and those who did not. And Kieft and Stuyvesant 
thought twice before provoking a conflict. 

Southold 8 was immediately settled, thus forming with 
Southampton the two long claw-like arms of Gardiner's 
Bay. We now have the kernels from which sprung the 
two bodies of settlers, English and Dutch. The Dutch 
got all the best land and the English all the poor, 
though they soon acquired more than two-thirds of the 
whole island. 

Close upon these came the settlements at Gravesend, 9 
Flushing, Jamaica, and Hempstead at the west end, 
mostly by English, and at Flatbush, Flatlands (New Am- 
ersfort ), and New Utrecht, by Dutch alone. The first have 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 



151 



importance as being one step toward making New York 
an English colony. Though living under Dutch laws, in 
speech and manners they remained Englishmen. And 
these towns showed the strongest front against Kieft and 




OLD HOUSE. SOL'TnOLD, L. I. 



Stuyvesant's misrule of 
any portion of the prov- 
ince except New Am- 
sterdam. 

On the contrary, the 
settlers of Southamp- 
ton and Southold did 

not consider themselves under Dutch jurisdiction.. In 
buying their lands they had not acknowledged it, and 
did not purpose doing so now. Their title came from 
the king of England, and to him they were willing to 
leave the question of sovereignty. In taking this stand, 
they knew they had the moral aid of the New England 



lf>2 LANDMARKS or%»\C ISLAND 

colonics, and believed they would have physical aid 
too if the Dutch attempted to drive them away. Hence, 
they asked to be taken under the Connecticut and New 
Haven governments, making, meanwhile, their own rules, 
holding their own town-meetings, and in all things act- 
ing independently of the Dutch at the other end of the 
island. 

In settling a Dutch town the way was this : The 
Gravesend settlers, for instance, were promised liberty of 
conscience, so far as it was allowed in Holland. This 
put religion on the same footing as our English exiles 
had found it in Holland. They had leave to make their 
own local rules and regulations and have them enforced 
by their own sheriff ; could choose justices to try petty 
cases ; enjoy the same privileges of trade as other in- 
habitants did, and no more, with freedom from taxation 
for ten years. On their part they were to be true subjects 
of Holland, and at the end of ten years to pay over to the 
company a tenth of their produce — grain, if that was 
raised, or butter and cheese, if grazing only was followed. 

This was the plan on paper. The rest depended on 
the settlers themselves. Those who came with Lady 
Deborah Moody 10 to Gravesend in 1643, all of whom were 
English, seem to have got on far better than those who 
began New Utrecht, all of whom were Dutch. These 
towns grew up side by side. One prospered, while the 
the other languished, chiefly through the neglect of its 
founders to live up to their own rules. 

At New Utrecht twenty two-acre lots were first laid 
out to as many proprietors, who pledged themselves to 
build within a fixed time. Jacob Swart had the first 
house up, Fiscal de Sille the best. His was the only one 
to be roofed over with red tiles, or fenced in with pali- 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 153 

sades, so that it could neither be easily forced or burned. 
It therefore became the garrison, until the settlers built 
one of their own. In time, by the help of negro labor, 
the whole village was thus enclosed. 

Then, as now, there were land speculators, who put 
their names to the agreement for no other purpose than 
to sell out at an advance. These fellows hung like mill- 
stones round the necks of actual settlers. Then there 
were earlier settlers all along this shore, mere squatters, 
who had no title to the land except possession, yet gave 
trouble. Besides the town land-grant the company also 
granted a proportion of meadow, for which the lot- 
holders drew lots. This was for grazing only. 

Two overseers with the sheriff had general charge of 
town affairs, but where they failed, as they often did, to 
keep good order, the governor himself stepped in. This 
had a tendency to bring the general government into 
contempt. If a man's pigs broke into his neighbor's 
enclosure, the case would often have to be carried before 
the governor and council. Their unfitness for self-govern- 
ment being assumed, the people naturally threw all re- 
sponsibility upon their rulers. 

Some penalties to evil-doers seem rather severe. For 
stealing or breaking down fencing, it was whipping and 
branding for the first offence and hanging for the second. 
The sheriff was empowered to arrest anyone who by 
word or act should disturb the public peace. So there 
was no such thing as free speech. There was a town 
sergeant, a sort of military policeman, appointed by the 
governor, who carried a halberd around with him as his 
staff of office, and whose business it was to summon and 
set the watch, without which no one could lie down in 
peace. Surrounding trees that would obstruct a fair 



154 LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 

shot at ;i skulking Indian were cut down. So that cacli 
village was ;it least half a camp. Among the first wants 
were a pound, a grist-mill, and a block-house. One by 
one these were provided for. At Gravesend they had a 
water-mill ; at New Utrecht an old horse-mill was brought 
over from New Amsterdam and set to work grinding 
again. 

Having adopted their code of rules before coming to 
the island, those English who did not come under Dutch 
rule really formed so many little colonies, knitted to- 
gether by previous knowledge of one another, with a code 
ready framed out of previous experience. Hence, we 
hear of fewer disputes among them. In political and re- 
ligious sentiment, too, they were one. Hence, the way of 
social order was at once established. At Southamp- 
ton the original proprietors took the disposing of all 
lands into their own hands. Each man's rights were 
strictly defined. He had his house lot, his planting lot, 
or his farm lot laid out to him, no part of which could be 
sold without the other. A house lot must always be a 
house lot ; so with a planting or farm lot ; and no man 
could build more than one dwelling on the home lot. It 
was forbidden to encroach, by so much as a hair's breadth, 
upon the great pasture laid out for the common use of 
all. This was the origin here of that peculiar system of 
commonage, 11 so called, which continued on this and the 
adjacent islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard 
long after it had died out on the mainland. As a custom 
it was centuries old. Shares in the common pasture de- 
scended from father to son long after the owner had 
ceased to keep his cattle or fold his sheep therein. 

These regulations looked to making a compact, yet not 
overcrowded settlement. They were meant to put a 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 155 

stop to disorderly building, to indulgence in speculation, 
and to the greed for getting more land than one's neigh- 
bor. In but one way could a man sell his lands. Here, 
certainly, was to be equality ; here was to be an equal 
chance for all. Yet there is seen also the distinct idea 
of keeping out unwelcome intruders. 

These English seem also to have carried with them the 
Puritan plan of making Church and State one, or as all 
were expected to become church members, the church 
was the town and the town the church. This was the 
Puritan ideal government, but it never would long stand 
the test of actual trial, because sooner or later it led to 
jealousies between the civil and religious authority. 
Human law being derived from the Scriptures, the elders 
considered themselves its true and only expounders. No 
magistrate would long consent to this view. Hence the 
difficulty of fixing a limit to the authority of the one and 
the other. But, at first, the annual town-meeting, or, as 
they called it here, their general court, had to deal mostly 
with actual wants, while questions of a strictly moral 
kind were left for the judgment of the church. 

When the Indians rose against the Dutch, in Kieft's 
time, all their settlements on Long Island were early 
marked for destruction. So determined were the Indians 
upon exterminating all Dutchmen that the towns at the 
west end of the island were practically depopulated. War- 
riors would even search the houses of Englishmen who 
were suspected of giving shelter to a Dutchman. In vain 
the Hollanders besought Kieft's help. " We could and 
would earn a livelihood if we could be protected against 
the Indians," said they. And again, those who lived at 
Gravesend warned him that, " if we leave this spot, then 
Long Island no longer has Dutch people for inhabitants." 



156 



LANDMARKS OF^ONC [SLAND 



At length the red men fell with fury upon Lady 
Moody's house, at Gravesend, thinking to destroy her as 
they had Mrs. Hutchinson, at Throg's Neck,' 2 but Lady 
Moody so stoutly withstood them that after successive 
assaults had failed the assailants withdrew. Of all the 
out-settlements Gravesend stood alone in its heroic resist- 
ance, and Lady Deborah Moody, with her forty stout 
English hearts, will some day be the theme of poet and 
painter. 

When war broke out between England and Holland 
there was great uneasiness, because the English towns 
showed sympathy for their own nation and flag. Doubts 
were even raised whether the Dutch could lawfully claim 
them. In 1663 some of them prayed Connecticut to take 
them under her government. This led to a combination 
of the English towns for mutual protection, though the 
Dutch towns remained loyal. 



1 Part of the colonists of 1G23 (see 
ante) settled on the west shore of the 
island, though just where they went or 
how long they remained is not learned. 
Some few Dutch, however, seem to have 
crossed the East River at an early day. 
Thus, it is said that a solitary settler, 
called George Jansen de Rapelje, planted 
himself at Wallabout Bay, in what is now 
the city of Brooklyn, about 1025, and that 
Rapelje'a daughter Sarah, born in that 
year, was the first child of white parent- 
age born on the island. — Thompson's 
Long Island ; N"ew York Historical Soci- 
ety's Collections. There were also a few 
scattered settlers at New Utrecht and 
Gravesend before those towns were laid 
out, though it is hard to fix a date for 
their comiug. 

2 The Long Island Indians were sub- 
divided into many tribes, whose names 
are preserved in the various localities 
they inhabited, as the Montauks, for 



whom the great eastern headland is 
named ; the Shinnecocks, after whom 
the most prominent landmark is called ; 
Accabaug (Riverhead), etc. 

3 Read Note 1. Brooklyn had mu- 
nicipal government in 1646. 

4 Tins attempt took place at Cow 
Neck, near the head of Cow Bay, after- 
ward called Howe's Bay, from Lieutenant 
Daniel Howe, leader of the evicted party, 
and sometimes Scout's Bay, from the 
officer sent to remove them. The locality 
is now in the township of Oyster Bay. 

5 The Southampton people's first 
grant from Sir W. Alexander's agent of 
eight miles square is dated April 27, 
1640. Being unable to confirm them in 
peaceable possession, Farrett, the agent, 
gave them a new deed at New Haven, 
June 12th, but they had gone upon their 
new location before this. They called 
it Southampton in memory of the Eng- 
lish port out of which they last sailed. 



LANDMARKS OF LONG ISLAND 



157 



6 Lion Gardiner was a military 
engineer who had been sent out to build 
this fort. He was the first Englishman, 
so far as known, to settle on Long Isl- 
and. His patent is dated March 10, 
1639. September 14, 1641, his daughter 
Elizabeth was born at Gardiner's Isl- 
and, she being the first native of Eng- 
lish blood. This island was first made a 
separate and independent plantation. 

7 Sir William Alexander's grant 
was from James I. in 1621 ; afterward 
confirmed by Charles I. in letters patent. 

8 Southold (Indian Yennycook). 
Richard Jackson had a cottage here in 
October, 1640, under a grant from Far- 
rett (August 15, 1640). No proper settle- 
ment is found before the next year. 
July 29, 1641, the colony of New Haven 
took a mortgage of the Southold lands 
fromFarrett. The title lapsed to that 
colony in 1644 and was by it turned over 
to the town of Southold in 1649. New 
Haven thus began and sustained this 
settlement. 

9 Gravesend. Settlers are claimed 
here previous to 1640 ; in another place 
in 1636.— Thompson's Long Island, ii., 
pp. 168, 182. Flushing. First planters 
English, who probably had lived in Hol- 
land ; they located here in 1645 ; Kieft's 
patent is dated October 19, 1645.— Ibid., 
ii. 69. Barber says it was settled in 
1644 by English from Flushing, Hol- 
land.— Xeiv York, p. 453. Jamaica, called 
Rusdorp by the Dutch, settled by people 
from Milford, Conn., and Heemestede, in 
1656, by permission of Governor Stuy- 
vesant.— Ibid, p. 458. The Indian deed 
stipulated "that noe person is to cut 
downe any tall trees where Eagles doe 
build theire nests." Hempstead (Dutch 
Heemestede), settled by people from 
Wethersfield and Stamford in 1643.— 
Thompson's Long Island. The same au- 
thority says that " in the spring of 1644 
the company crossed the Sound and be- 



gan settlement on the present site of the 
village of Hempstead." Hempstead was 
divided 1784. Flatbush, first called 
Midwout (Middlewoods), begun 1651 
(Thompson's Long Island, ii., 200) ; Flat- 
lands in 1636 (?) (ibid., ii. 182) (Governor 
Van Twiller had a farm here) ; New 
Utrecht in 1654 by twenty families from 
Holland and a few Palatines (ibid. ii. 
190). These statements are, in general, so 
loose and conflicting that the earliest 
dates given should be accepted with 
caution. 

10 Lady Deborah Moody was a 
gentlewoman of wealth and refinement, 
who had first settled in Lynn, Mass. 
For refusing to accept the doctrine of 
infant baptism her church (Salem) ex- 
pelled her. She would not recant, so in 
1643, with a considerable following, she 
founded Gravesend, and became most 
helpful to the Dutch in time of need. 

11 Original proprietors only, or those 
inheriting from them, could pasture 
their animals on the commons. The 
peninsula of Easthampton and Montauk 
was longest so held. Hempstead Plain, 
a tract sixteen miles long, unenclosed, 
was so used within fifty years. Boston 
Common is the most noted example of 
land so held to this day. See Sir H. 
Maine's Village Communities; Johns 
Hopkins Historical Studies, vol. i. 

12 Throg's Neck, short for John 
Throgmorton, the first English set- 
tler's name. He first followed Roger 
Williams into banishment, then re- 
moved to this place. It was near here 
that the unfortunate Mrs. Hutchinson 
had sought a safe retreat for her own, 
Throgmorton's, and one Cornhill's fam- 
ilies, forming together a secluded little 
neighborhood. But all, except a few 
women and children who succeeded in 
getting off in a boat, were slain without 
mercy. 



158 DESCRIPTION (^ALBANY 

DESCRIPTION OF ALBANY. 1 

[BY MRS. ANNE GRANT, OP LAGGAN.] 

The city of Albany stretched along the banks of the 
Hudson ; one very wide and long street lay parallel to 
the river, the intermediate space between it and the 
shore being occupied by gardens. A small but steep 
hill rose above the centre of the town, on which stood a 
fort, intended (but very ill-adapted) for the defence of 
the place and the neighboring country. From the foot 
of this hill another street was built, sloping pretty rapid- 
ly down till it joined the one before mentioned that ran 
along the river. This street was still wider than the 
other. It was paved only on each side, the middle 
being occupied by public edifices. These consisted of a 
market-place, or guard-house, a town-hall, and the Eng- 
lish and Dutch churches. The English church belonged 
to the Episcopal persuasion, and in the diocese of the 
Bishop of London ; it stood at the foot of the hill, at the 
upper end of the street. The Dutch church was situ- 
ated at the bottom of the descent, where the street ter- 
minated ; two irregular streets, not so broad, but equally 
long, ran parallel to these, and a few even ones opened 
between them. The town, in proportion to its popula- 
tion, occupied a great space of ground. This city, in 
short, was a semi-rural establishment ; every house had 
its garden, well, and a little green behind ; before every 
door a tree was planted, rendered interesting by being 
coeval with some beloved member of the family. Many 
of their trees were of a prodigious size and extraordi- 
nary beauty, but without regularity, everyone planting 



DESCRIPTION OF ALBANY 



159 



the kind that best pleased him, or which lie thought 
would afford the most agreeable shade to the open por- 
tico at his door, which was surrounded by seats and as- 
cended by a few steps. It was in these that each domestic 
group was seated in summer evenings to enjoy the balmy 
twilight or the serenely clear moonlight. Each family 
had a cow, fed in the common pasture at the end of the 
town. In the 
evening the herd 
returned all to- 
gether, of their 
own accord, with 
their tinkling 
bells hung at 
their necks, 
along the wide 
a n d grassy 
street, to their 
wonted shelter- 
ing trees, to be 
milked at their 
masters' doors. 
Nothing could 

be more pleasing to a simple and benevolent mind than 
to see thus at one view all the inhabitants of a town 
which contained not one very rich or very poor, very 
knowing or very ignorant, very rude or very polished, 
individual— to see all these children of nature enjoying 
in easy indolence or social intercourse 

"The cool, the fragrant, and the dusky hour, 1 ' 

clothed in the plainest habits, and with minds as undis- 
guised and artless. At one door were young matrons, at 




OLD DUTCH CHURCH, ALBANY. 



160 DESCRIPTION Qp ALBANY 

another the elders of the people, at a third the youths 
and the maidens, gay ly chatting or singing together, while 
the children played round the trees, or waited by the 
cows for the chief ingredient of their frugal supper, 
which they generally ate sitting on the steps in the open 
air. This picture, so familiar to my imagination, has led 
me away from my purpose, which was to describe the 
rural economy and modes of living in this patriarchal 
city. At one end of the town, as I observed before, was 
a common pasture where all the cattle belonging to the 
inhabitants grazed together. A never-failing instinct 
guided each home to her master's door in the evening, 
where, being treated with a few vegetables and a little 
fat, which is indispensably necessary for cattle in this 
country, they patiently Avaited the night ; and after being 
milked in the morning they went off in slow and regular 
procession to the pasture. At the other end of the town 
was a fertile plain along the river, three miles in length 
and near a mile broad. This was all divided into lots, 
where every inhabitant raised Indian corn sufficient for 
the food of two or three slaves (the greatest number that 
each family ever possessed), and for his horses, pigs, and 
poultry. Their flour and other grain they purchased 
from farmers in the vicinity. Above the town, a long 
stretch to the westward was occupied first by sandy hills, 
on which grew bilberries of uncommon size and flavor, 
in prodigious quantities ; beyond rose heights of a poor, 
hungry soil, thinly covered with stunted pines or dwarf 
oak. 

1 This was written from the memory but is by far the best picture of Al- 
of a child only thirteen years of age, bany, in about 1700, extant. 



EAST NEW JERSEY 



EAST NEW JERSEY. 



161 



Just at what time settlement began on the Jersey side 
of the Hudson is not clear. Probably Michael Panw's 
establishment at Pavonia, such as it was, was one of the 
earliest, if not the very first. We know this to have been 
a combined farm and trading-post. Yet this goes no far- 
ther back than 1630, at most. More is not certainly 
known. But great or small, we find in Bergen 1 the seed 
of the planting of New Jersey. 

By the time of the English conquest some half-dozen 
Dutch hamlets had grouped themselves around New York 
island, to which, indeed, they mostly owed all their life. 
After the conquest a cluster of new and stronger settle- 
ments grew up along the coast, chiefly between the Passaic 
and the Karitan, all owing their life to its new impulse. 
Most of them were vigorous offshoots from the older New 
England colonies. Later on, New Jersey received a 
sprinkling of several nationalities ; but the men and women 
who first came seeking new homes and new fortunes here 
were no strangers to the trials and hardships of a pioneer 
life. New Jersey has no more flourishing communities 
to-day than they founded. 

Eirst of all some Long Island people had removed to 
lands at Middletown, Shrewsbury, and Elizabethtown, or 
what were later so called. It is said that after these peo- 
ple had bought their lands of the Indians, and then had 
their purchase confirmed by a deed from Governor 
Nicolls, of New York, the craze to remove caused some- 
thing like a depopulation of the west end of Long Island. 
Nicolls could not then know, however, that the duke, his 
master, had already given away not only these same 
11 



L62 



EAST NKW^tKKSKY 




THE JBBSB1S, DELAWAKE, AND PENNSYLVANIA. 






EAST NEW JERSEY 163 

lauds, but tlie whole of what is uow New Jersey, then 
first called Nova Cesarea, 2 thus setting up a separate and 
distinct government from that of New York. The gift 
had been made even before it was the duke's to give — 
before its conquest from the Dutch. 

The new proprietors 3 immediately set about planning 
how best to settle and govern their new province. Their 
first ship-load of emigrants came over in 1665, landing 
at what is now Elizabeth, but was first called Elizabeth- 
town, in Lady Carteret's honor. With them came Philip 
Carteret, 4 as deputy -governor, who is said to have landed 
with a hoe on his shoulder. He established the seat of 
government at this place. As those whom he found there 
claimed the land as theirs, and as the proprietors insist- 
ed that it was not, a long and bitter quarrel ensued, which 
has become historical. 

In the same autumn agents were sent into New Eng- 
land, from town to town, circulating the inducements held 
out by the proprietors, praising the country, and solicit- 
ing recruits. They had good success, especially in those 
places where the Quakers had suffered persecution short- 
ly before. These terms or privileges were called " Con- 
cessions." Eeligions liberty was promised. All lands in 
the province were to be divided into parcels, of which 
six- sevenths were to go to actual settlers, free of cost, ex- 
cept quit-rents of a half-penny an acre, while the pro- 
prietors kept the remaining seventh for themselves. 
Those who came out with the first emigration received 
larger portions than those who came later. To give time 
for a settler to clear, plant, and build, quit-rents were not 
to begin till the year 1670. So, any man possessing 
common industry could secure a homestead. If he 
owned a hundred acres, his yearly rent would amount to 



164 EAST NEW^JBRSEl 

but fifty pence, a small enough sum one would think. 
Yet these quit-rents proved the rock upon which all the 
proprietary governments finally went to pieces. 

As to government, absolute power passed from the 
Duke of York to Berkeley and Carteret, with the gift of 
the province. They had, of course, the naming of their 
own governor and council, who in turn appointed or re- 
moved all local officers. This kept the executive author- 
ity exclusively in their hands. They, however, did grant 
an assembly of twelve representatives, to be chosen by 
the freemen, in each year. This assembly could make 
laws subject to the approval of the lords proprietors. All 
power, therefore, flowed back into their hands ; the pub- 
lic welfare depended wholly upon the Avisdom of these 
absentee lords. 5 

Following close upon the news that New Jersey had 
been thrown open to settlement, one body of emigrants 
removed from the Piscataqua settlements of New Hamp- 
shire to the banks of the Raritan, where they founded 
Piscataway Township ; another, from Newbury, Mass., 
settled Woodbridge, the name being given in com- 
pliment to the beloved pastor they left behind them ; 
a third, from Milford, Guilford, and Branford, in New 
Haven Colony, having bought of the Elizabethtown own- 
ers that part of their lands lying on the other side of 
Avhat has ever since been known as Bound Brook, called 
their new town, on the Passaic, Newark. There is a 
pretty story running to the effect that Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of "Leftenant Samuel Swaine," was the first to leap 
on shore here, and that Josiah Ward, whose helping hand 
she took, became her future husband. 

The first assembly met at Elizabethtown, in May, 16G8. 
It was composed of two freeholders from each town. 






EAST NEW JERSEY 165 

There was a second session in November, but disputes 
which then and there arose over the concessions, put a 
stop to the calling of another assembly for some years. 

For many years there was no other way to the settle- 
ments on the Delaware except by the old Indian paths, 
which preceded and pointed the way for the white man's 
roads. The main trail led from Elizabethport, via New 
Brunswick, straight across the country to near Trenton 
Falls. Without rod or level these untaught engineers 
easily traced out the shortest line for the journey. Even 
the railway has not disdained to follow in their guiding 
footsteps. 

In 1673 Lord Berkeley sold out to John Fenwick and 
Edward Billing, English Quakers, for a thousand pounds. 
Having quarrelled over their respective shares, they sub- 
mitted their difference to William Penn, 6 one of the most 
influential of their sect, who gave to Billing nine-tenths 
and to Fenwick one-tenth. But Lord Berkeley had sold 
what he could not deliver, his province being then in the 
enemy's hands. 

The retaking of New York by the Dutch, in 1673, 
brought back the old state of things, for the year that 
they held the province. New Jersey again became part 
of New Netherlands and as such her towns were required 
to submit to that rule. Another year restored English 
rule by formal treaty. 7 Public tranquillity had been little 
disturbed, though the authority of the proprietors was 
necessarily much weakened. 

Upon the restoration to him of his province of New 
York, the duke sent out a new governor in the person 
of Edmund Andros, who treated New Jersey much as the 
Dutch had treated it when they became conquerors. He 



166 



EAST NKUip JERSEY 



seems to have assumed that the rights of the old pro- 
prietors to govern had ceased then and there, though 

their authority had been derived from the same source 
as his own and was merely suspended by the act of 
war. 

But Andros was at all times a law to himself. Finding 
that Governor Carteret would not yield up his rights, 
Andros had him arrested by a file of soldiers at dead of 
night, and brought over to New York, for usurping power 
that was not his. By this act Andros was doing neither 

more nor less himself. 
Carteret was put on trial, 
Andros sitting as judge. 
The jury found the pris- 
oner not guilty, and he 
went back to Elizabeth- 
town in triumph. 8 

Hitherto all New Jer- 
sey had been considered 
as one province under 
one head. Though there 
seems to have been an agreement between the proprie- 
tors looking to a division, it was not till 1676 that such 
division took effect. By a northwest line, drawn from 
Little Egg Harbor, on the Atlantic, to near Minisink 
Island, at the Delaware, two provinces were formed, 
respectively known as East and AVest New Jersey. East 
Jersey fell to Carteret's share and West Jersey to the 
Quaker proprietors, of whom we shall have more to say 
presently. 

Sir George Carteret died in 1679, leaving East Jersey 
intrust for the payment of his debts. The trustees (1682) 
sold to twelve proprietors, who, in turn, took in twelve 




COLONIAL TABLE. 



EAST NEW JERSEY 



167 



others, thus making a body afterward known as the 
Twenty-four Proprietors. These proprietors now took 
full control of the affairs of the province. One step w T as 
the removal of the capital to Perth Amboy. 9 

The new proprietors chose Robert Barclay, 10 one of 
their number and a noted Friend, their governor for life. 
Barclay did not 
come out himself, 
but sent Thomas 
Pvudyard, a London 
attorney, in his 
stead, who wrote 
home very flatter- 
ing accounts of the 
country and peo- 
ple. 

It is computed 
that there were 
about five thou- 
sand people at this 
time in East Jer- 
sey, of wdiom four 
hundred were in 
Shrewsbury, five 

hundred in Middletown, four hundred in Piscataway, six 
hundred in AVoodbridge, seven hundred in Elizabeth- 
town, five hundred in Newark, and three hundred in Ber- 
gen. These numbers are supposed by the historian 
Whitehead to represent a total of not far from a thou- 
sand families. At Shrewsbury Colonel Lewis Morris, 
father of several distinguished sons, had established iron- 
works. 

East New Jersey had her Pilgrims, too, in the Scottish 




ANDKEW HAMILTON. 



168 EAST NEA^ERSET 

Presbyterians, who fled from cruel persecution, in Charles 
the Second's reign. At home these people were called 
Covenanters, and sometimes Cameronians. Their cove- 
nant embraced the solemn declaration, " This will we do, 
as in the sight of God." These people mostly settled 
in Somerset County, the three communities of Bound 
Brook, Baskingridge, and Lamington. 

In 1690 Barclay died. The proprietors then elected 
Andrew Hamilton 11 governor, and he was succeeded by 
Jeremiah Bass in 1698. Troubles broke out between 
the proprietors and people over the collection of quit- 
rents. Though small, the payments were evaded or 
openly refused. The proprietors saw their rule drawing 
to an end. Their only remedy, as they thought, lay in a 
surrender of their power to govern. This they did (1702) 
in the hope of better security for their property than they 
themselves could give it. 



1 All, or most, of the Dutch settle- towns were in open revolt against the 

ments lay in what is now Bergen proprietary government for a time. 

County. 6 William Penn's name here appears 

3 Nova Cesarea. This name was for the first time in connection with 

given to honor Carteret, it is thought, on American affairs. 

account of his valiant defence of the 7 The Treaty of Westminster, 
Island of Jersey, in the English Channel, signed February 19, 1674, restored all 
against the Parliament forces. Jersey is places taken during the war. 
a rather far-away corruption of Cesarea, 8 Carteret's Arrest. Andros con- 
that being the name given by the Ko- tinned, however, to commission both 
mans to the island. civil and military officers. 

3 New Proprietors were Sir John 9 Perth Amboy was named for 
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, both James, Earl of Perth, one of the Twenty- 
intimate friends of the Duke of York. four Proprietor-. 

4 Philip Carteret. The Carterets '" Kobeut Barclay, like Penn. was 
were of good French descent. Philip one of those men of culture who, hav- 
married (1G81) Elizabeth, daughter of ing embraced Quaker doctrines, ably 
Richard Smith, of Smithtown, Long and zealously vindicated them with his 
Island. pen. His Apology attracted wide at- 

5 Absentee Lords, who looked to tention, as well as warm controversy, 
building up their own estates, soon lost on account of its assertion of the neces- 
all terrors to the colonists. Here several sity of immediate revelation. When 



EAST NEW JERSEY i69 

^mentooUanactivepartinthe.orfc "£™™*™™ m "Z 

„f colonizing . a mean, »f »he well mEa. «^> » - ^ 

bodies and consciences of their fellow- My. " a & fc d uty 

beUe^rs, we see a controlhng purpose ««*^^ ° he plalltati0M . 

in the rise of each little community. postmaster tor an uie p 



WEST NEW JERSEY. 



In some respects the founding of this province resem- 
bles the founding of New England. Persecution gave it 
being, piety gave it strength, and wisdom length of days. 

Exactly at what time the English Quakers began to 
cast their eyes toward New Jersey, as their appointed 
asylum and refuge, does not appear ; but the buying up 
of a separate interest, and the arrangements for a par i- 
tion, as related in the last chapter, would seem to fix the 
motive, if not the moment, for action. In a word, there 
was a movement so strong as to rival the Puritan exodus 
of 1630 And in both cases the mass of English people 
unquestionably thought their going a good riddance to 

the kingdom. . ,, 

For in Christian England, be it said, as well as in all 

her colonies, a Quaker was an object of scorn, of derision, 

and of abuse. By the churches he was looked upon as a 

firebrand, by the law as an outcast, and by the unreasoning 

multitude as a fool and a fanatic. In England he had 

been imprisoned and even transported.' In the colonies 

he had been scourged, cropped, banished, and finally 

hanged. Still, the sect strangely seemed to thrive upon 

persecution. Like a strong tree, its strength laj _a .the 

root Its numbers increased ; men of mark, like William 

Penn and Barclay of Ury, joined it. Live it would, and 



170 WEST xk\#.iki:sky 

it would not be silenced. We can now form something 
Like a correct judgment as to the temper of the older col- 
onics toward one founded by Quakers. 

A purely religious revolt had peopled New England. 
But the Quaker went a long way beyond the Puritan. 
The Puritan said he would have no bishops, no printed 
prayers to be read from a book, and no bowing of the head 
or other ceremonies common to the service of both the 
Roman Catholic and English churches. By so much he 
would restore simplicity to his worship of God. The 
Quaker said he would have no clergy at all, that a hired 
preacher could have no authority to speak for God; but 
that any man who felt the prompting of the Spirit 
within him might and ought to speak out before his fel- 
low-men, for their edification. This was simplicity itself. 
But this was not all. The Puritan did not so much aim 
to reform society and manners. The Quaker did. To 
live on the simplest food ; dress in the plainest clothes ; 
give no man a title; but say "thee" and "thou" to 
all alike ; keep on his hat, were it even in the king's 
own presence, as William Penn once did ; shun lawsuits ; 
never give back a blow or take an oath, were all parts of 
his creed. He declared for equality, brotherly love, and 
the Bible. Hence, he called himself simply a Friend. 
And so great a thinker as Voltaire believed that the 
Quaker came nearest the ideal Christian, and the perfect 
philosopher. 

In the rise of this new sect we find the seed of the 
planting of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. If the 
Quaker could not be tolerated in England, the next best 
thing Avas for him to go where he would. So reasoned 
the thinking men of this persuasion. And if the experi- 
ment could be fairly tried anywhere, it must be where it 



WEST NEW JERSEY 



171 



would be wholly left to itself. For this the way had 
already been cleared. 

We have seen how a little thin stream of humanity had 
come trickling down out of the hills and valleys of New 
England into East New Jersey there to found a cluster 
of prosperous towns 
and villages. There 
Avere some Quakers 
among them. This 
little stream was 
shortly to be swollen 
into a flood, pouring 
with ever-deepening 
channel into West 
New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. 

In 1674, we re- 
member, the Dutch 
finally gave up New 
Netherland. At this 
time all the country 
between Am boy and 
the Delaware was a 
wilderness, traversed 
only by Indian paths, seldom trod by a white traveller. 
When Governor Andros came out he immediately took 
possession of the fort at Newcastle, on the Delaware, 
agreeably to the treaty. Though located on the west 
side, this post afforded some protection also to the east. 
Besides this, there were the old settlers, Swedish and 
Dutch, w r ho had seen three different flags raised over them. 
These, too, would be some support to new-comers. But 
in all West Jersey itself there was only Fort Nassau, 




SIR EDMUND AN DUOS. 



172 WEST NE^pTERSEt 

now of little account, besides the deserted hamlets of 
Elsingburg, at Salem Creek, and Swedesborough, at Rac- 
coon Creek. 2 

Well-chosen sites, as they were, they were certain to 
be revived sooner or later. 

The first-comers were a ship-load of people who came 
over with Fenwick in 1675. They landed at a place 
called by him Salem. 3 Fenwick brought his two 
daughters and many servants. A second and larger 
emigration took place in 1677. These people came from 
London and Yorkshire, and were mostly Quakers. It is 
said that as their ship lay in the Thames, King Charles 
II. came alongside in his barge, and after asking if all 
were Quakers, he gave them his blessing. Strange to 
say, this frivolous king had befriended this people, not 
that he loved Quakers more, but Puritans less. After 
touching at Newcastle, they first landed at Raccoon 
Creek, where the Swedes had built some scattered huts, 
and cow-houses, in which the emigrants, for want of 
better, Avere fain to take up their first lodgings. They 
afterward went higher up the river to a tract bought of 
the Indians, on which they began their town of Bur- 
lington. 4 

Their mode of laying out and building their town was 
as follows : The site was an island, round which the 
tides flowed freely. One wide street was first staked out. 
Ten acres were allotted to each settler for his house, or- 
chard, and garden. On one side of the main street the 
Yorkshire men built and on the other the Londoners. 
We may fairly presume that emulation helped on the 
work. Burlington received large accessions from Eng- 
land. Shrewd men came out, looked at the country, and 
showed their faith in it by selling out in England and re- 



WEST NEW JERSEY 173 

turning to New Jersey to live. Before many years two 
substantial bridges, called respectively York and Lon- 
don Bridge, connected the island with the mainland. 
Salem below, and Gloucester above, began to show 
like signs of prosperity as the volume of migration 
increased. 

Almost immediately (1677) the West Jersey settlers 
agreed to a code drawn up by William Penn, which was 
to be their organic law or constitution. It provided for 
an assembly to be chosen by the people. Other provis- 
ions were in the spirit of the principles we have just laid 
down, now for the first time put into a written compact. 
All, or nearly all, the signers were Quakers. 

However, there could be no settled government so long- 
as Andros claimed control in both Jerseys, as has been 
said. Upon trial of the cause in England judgment was 
given against this claim. His Royal Highness, the Duke 
of York, who had held out until this decision was made 
against him, then gave the proprietors a new deed under 
which they were at last freed from all question of right to 
govern as they saw fit. Immediately they elected Billing 
governor, who appointed Samuel Jennings his deputy. 
Jennings called the first assembly together at Burlington, 
in November, 1681. It began by declaring its own pow- 
ers and defining those of the governor and council, or 
enacting what is called a bill of rights. There was to be 
entire liberty of conscience. All offices of public trust 
should be nominated and elected by the assembly. It 
should levy all taxes. It should not be prorogued or dis- 
solved without its own consent, nor should the governor 
refuse to sign such laws as might be made under pain of 
being considered an enemy of the public. As nearly as 
might be this was a free representative democracy. There 



174 



WEST NE«JERSEY 



had been nothing like it in the history of the colonies 
before. Would this experiment succeed? 

The first-comers wrote home very favorable accounts 
of the country, spiced with homely truths. They said 
" it would not produce corn without labor; nor could cat- 
tle be got without something to buy them ; nor bread with 

idleness." They 
told what great 
crops of wheat the 
virgin soil would 
produce. Straw- 
berries, whortle- 
berries, and cran- 
berries (a novelty 
to these settlers) 
grew wild abun- 
dantly. By 1680 
there were many 
good apple an d 
peach or ch ards 
among them. In 
time peaches be- 
came so p 1 e n t y 
that the hogs were 
fed on them. With 
his gun a settler could go out and kill a wild turkey or 
deer, if he wanted meat ; or if fish, by casting his net in 
the Delaware he could take herring enough to keep his 
family all winter. Improvements kept pace with wants. 
So we learn that by 1080 they had one grist-mill grinding 
at Rancocus Creek and another at Trenton Falls. By 
1(581 they had opened a road between Burlington and 
Salem, so that travel by land was no longer restricted to 




CORNBUBT. 



WEST NEW JERSEY 175 

the old Indian paths, as it had been. With roads came 
vehicles, shortening distances and enlarging the lives of 
the settlers by more frequent communication with each 
other. 5 

Four counties were formed, taking their names from 
the chief towns. Of these Burlington was chiefly engaged 
in the fur trade, Gloucester in making pitch and resin, 
Salem in raising wheat and cranberries, and sandy Cape 
May in getting oil and whalebone from her fisheries. 

But the proprietary government lacked strength. Pos- 
sibly it had given away too much. At last, Dr. Daniel 
Coxe, of London, bought out all of Billing's interest ; he 
then took upon himself the management of the province. 
Burlington grew rapidly under his patronage, as it was 
there that his deputy's residence was fixed. As a spur 
to business he caused a large ship to be built there. 
Though there was growing prosperity on the surface, 
discontent was beneath. By this time the feeling against 
the payment of quit-rents had raised up a strong party 
against the proprietors — in some cases strong enough to 
defy the officers of the law, who tried to enforce the col- 
lection of those unpopular rents. More than this, the 
English proprietors found that their own agents took 
advantage of this state of things to cheat them or to put 
them off. Realizing that their own power had failed 
them, the proprietors of both provinces joined in giving 
it up to the crown. This act brought East and West Jer- 
sey under the same royal governor as New York had at 
this time — Lord Cornbury. 6 The proprietors, who called 
themselves the West New Jersey Society, then became 
only a body of associated land-owners. All this happened 
in the reign of Queen Anne— in the very first year of her 
reign, indeed, 1702. 



176 



WKST NK\«r.T HUSKY 



i Fifty-five Quakers wore ordered 
transported to America in 1664. It was 
some time before any master could be 
found to carry them. As the Friends 
would not walk on board or the sailors 
hoist them, soldiers from the Tower were 
employed. In 1665 the vessel sailed, but 
was captured by the Dutch, who set the 
prisoners at liberty. 

2 The rise and fall of these set- 
tlements is treated of in the next chap- 
ter, they being mostly offshoots from 
New Sweden. Perhaps there may have 
been a few people at Elsenburg (Salem) 
when Fenwick arrived. 

3 Salem. As early as 1642 emigrants 
from New Haven, Conn., bought of 
the Indians a iract here called by them 
Asamohaking. and settled on it. The 
Dutch and Swedes combined to drive 
them away. Salem was therefore the 
first place ir New Jersey settled by Eng- 
lish people. See Note 2. 

4 Burlington is fully described in 
Gabriel Thomas' account of West Ncio 
Jersey. 

5 Fairs. " I have recently been at 



Burlington at the fair, where there wad 
a great concourse of people and great 
abundance of English merchandise that 
we could get for a reasonable price, for 
this country is full of goods."--/.,'//.'/- of 
1683. Fairs were provided for, as in 
England, to check extortion, promote 
business, and prevent adulterations, by 
exposing everything in open market. 
They were governed by rules carried out 
by regularly appointed officers. In 
sparsely settled regions they took the 
place of the great stores of to-day. 

6 Edward, Lord Cornbury, eldest 
son of the Earl of Clarendon, early de- 
serted James II. to join William of 
Orange. Though so highly connected, 
he was not very highly esteemed. 
James, when Duke of York, had mar- 
ried Anne Hyde, also daughter of Claren- 
don, and William had married James' 
daughter Mary. Cornbury received the 
government of New York as a reward 
for taking arms for William. He be- 
haved most indecorously, sometimes 
parading in women's clothes for his own 
diversion. 



V. 

THE DUTCH, SWEDES, AND ENGLISH 
ON THE DELAWARE 



I 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 

N New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, too, as we 
• first find it, lay those weaker threads of commercial 
rivalries, Dutch, Swedish, and English, that when twisted 
together, by the strong hand of Anglo-Saxon power, grew 
to a unit of enduring strength. Whenever three such 
widely different peoples have met on disputed ground, 
the experiment of merging all in one must be watched 
with interest. It had on the Delaware its first trial. 

Mention has been made of the sending of some colonists 
to the South Eiver in 1623. As this was the first ship-load 
brought to New Netherland, it takes settlement on the 
Delaware nearly as far back as on the Hudson. And if 
it be borne in mind that Hudson saw the Delaware first, 
and that his doing so founded the Dutch claim to both 
banks of that great river, we shall feel no surprise at the 
haste shown by that nation to grasp this great artery of a 
great region. One glance at the map, indeed, will show 
us how vast was the region that these two rivers drained, 
how nature seems to have destined them as the bounda- 
ries of one great compact country, and how important it 
was to the nation occupying this country that the whole 
12 



178 THE FOUND! XC <^ XKW SWEDEN 

course of these rivers, from their source to the sea, should 
be under its control. The story of this chapter might 
well be entitled " A struggle for the possession of the 
Delaware." 

The name of South River explains itself. It Avas but a 
makeshift and soon fell into disuse. The name of Dela- 
ware comes from the governor of Virginia, Thomas West 
(Lord Delaware), who visited it in 1610. We do not know 
just when it took his name, though ten years later it was 
in pretty general use among the English, who, of course, 
did not want to see a Dutch name attached to a river 
they said the Dutch had no right to. But with it also 
the name of an English nobleman was thrust upon the 
ancient nation peopling its banks ; and so, ever after, the 
great Lenni-Lenape 1 took the name of Delawares among 
the English. This, too, was a makeshift, and a poor one 
at that. 

The earliest permanent name we find here is that of 
Cape May, given by the Dutch explorer, Cornells Jacob- 
sen May, in 1620, while sailing southward. 

The little company sent to the Delaware in 1623 landed 
near what is now Gloucester, on the Jersey shore, there 
building, most likely, a strong log-house, inclosed by 
palisades, to which was given the warlike name of Fort 
Nassau," though its whole garrison was only four young 
married couples. The place where it stood is within 
sight of the city of Philadelphia. Lonely, indeed, must 
have been life there — as lonely as that at any one of the 
little stockades of later times on the great Western plains. 
But even this weak post could not be maintained, and it 
was soon abandoned. 

These acts aroused strong resentment in England, for 
no Englishman would admit that the Dutch had any 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN 



179 



right whatever to settle or build forts in Virginia. 8 So 
Charles I. strongly protested against them. The States 
as strongly disowned what had been done, laying the 
whole blame upon their West India Company. Had 
Charles not just then been in great trouble with his own 
subjects he might have pressed this matter farther. 
Either Holland did not care to offend England, or she 
did not hold her sovereignty over New Netherland as a 




SWEDISH COSTUMES. 



thing to be openly declared and defended. As it was, the 
crafty Dutch company, finding no one to molest them, 
went on using the Delaware as their own. 

Eight years went by. Traders visited the Delaware, 
but no colonists. The tide of European migration then 
takes us across the Delaware, to that fertile little penin- 
sula inclosed between it and the Chesapeake. In 1631, 
with an eye to controlling this river, De Vries took up 
lands at Lewiston Creek, 4 Delaware, in right of a grant 
to him as a patroon, and he had built there a brick house 
for his thirty colonists, which he poetically called Swan- 



180 THE FOUNDING n^NKW SWEDEN 

endael, " the Yale of Swans." His people loyally erected 
a column bearing the Dutch arms. A thievish Indian 
stole the plate for an ornament. The Dutch settlers 
made such a stir about it that the thief was put to death 
by his tribe. In revenge, his clansmen fell upon the 
settlers, slew them all, and gave Swanendael to the 
flames. This happened in 1632. 

These disasters left the Delaware the solitude it was 
before. Of course, intruders could not be kept out. 
Maryland Avas beginning to be settled. In 1635 a roving 
party from Kent Island, rinding Fort Nassau deserted, 
took possession of it, until the Dutch came and turned 
them out again, neck and heels. From this time a regu- 
lar garrison was kept up there. And with this effort the 
Dutch contented themselves for the present. 

Evidence is found of a design to hem in the Dutch 
here, by building up one English colony in Maryland, 
and another at Cape May, for which a grant was made 
to Sir Edmund Plowden 5 (1634), who called it New 
Albion, and himself Lord Palatine. Maryland grew up 
and prospered, but New Albion came to nothing at all. 
If it had succeeded, the Delaware would inevitably have 
fallen under English control much sooner than it did. 

From Holland the idea of planting colonies in America 
spread to Sweden. Both in commerce and politics the re- 
lations between these two countries were very close. The 
advantages first drawn by Spain, then by France and 
England, and lastly by Holland, were so clearly seen 
that even Sweden now fell in with the great march of 
civilization to the hopeful West. Sweden then had a 
great king. Mighty in arms, Gustavus Adolphus towered 
high above all the crowned heads of Christendom. He 
turned to the work of planting an American colony with 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN 181 

his accustomed vigor. He called for the organization of 
a West India Company in his dominions. He made 
large and liberal offers, yet the project would not move ; 
Sweden was drained of money by war. Gustavus, him- 
self, was again called to the field, where he fell fighting 
in 1632. Rightly was he called by some " the Lion 
of the North," and by others " the sower of swift war- 
chariots." 

Christina, the king's daughter, being only six years 
old, the care of the kingdom fell to the prime minister, 
Axel Oxenstiern, 7 as great a statesman as his master had 
been king. Even in the midst of war, the minister had 
never lost sight of the king's favorite project, though his 
first mind had been to send a colony to the Gold Coast, 
where riches were supposed to abound. It so happened 
that Minuit, whom we have seen a managing director in 
New Netherland, now came to Oxenstiern's notice. His 
experience was admitted, his plans were approved, and 
it was decided that he should lead the new colony. 
Great secrecy was kept for fear the Dutch West India 
Company should take the alarm and put a stop to the 
scheme which Minuit had planned, all regardless of the 
claims of his old employers. 

Half the money needed was raised in Holland, half in 
Sweden. Two ships, the Key of Kalmar and the Griffin, 
were manned with Dutch sailors. They sailed in the fall 
of 1637 ; but bad weather drove them into port again, so 
that it was early April before they could reach the Dela- 
ware. The people were first put on shore at or near the 
same spot where DeVries' colony had so miserably per- 
ished six years before. Its evil memories seem to have 
haunted it still, for Minuit lost no time in looking up a 
better location. This was found higher up the river. 



182 THE FOUNDING <>^ NKW BWEDEN 

just inside one of its western tributaries, where there was 
good ground and good anchorage. Thither these colo- 
nists went, and after firing their cannon, to see if there 
were any Christians to dispute possession with them, 
they there began their town. 

These things done, Minuit set up the arms of Sweden. 
A fort was begun on a point of land situated at about 
two English miles from the Delaware. Inside this were 
built two log-houses for the garrison. With a salute of 
cannon the work was loyally named Christina, for the 
young queen ; and the river running by it, first called 
the Elbe, later took this name also, which it still retains. 
Minuit gave the colony its name of New Sweden. Its 
site was near the present city of Wilmington. 8 

The Dutch commissary at Fort Nassau did not fail to 
protest against this occupation of Dutch territory, nor 
did Kieft lose any time in informing his employers. The 
new-comers were not, however, to be frightened away, and 
held their ground. They had already obtained a quantity 
of furs, which were now shipped home. Though full of 
wrath, the Dutch left the unwelcome intruders to them- 
selves for the present. 

Having put the colony on its feet, Minuit himself 
sailed for Sweden, by way of the West Indies, leaving 
behind him twenty-three men, nearly all Dutch, in com- 
mand of both a military officer and a civil one. Minuit 
is supposed to have been lost in a hurricane in the West 
Indies, as he is known to have reached there safely. 

Peter Hollander having been appointed Minuit's suc- 
cessor, more Swedes were sent out in 1640, with some 
cattle and farming-tools. They found the colony in good 
condition. More Dutch also arrived this year for this 
colony, who settled a few miles below Christina. There 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN 



183 



being two parties to this enterprise — one in Holland and 
one in Sweden — each seems to have worked to secure 
emigrants of its own nation, and there appears to have 
been some rivalry between the Swedes and the Dutch 
in the colony also. 

Hollander bought lands of the Indians as far up as 
the falls. 9 He complained that the colonists were not 
only too few, but that a more stupid lot could not be 




EARLY SWEDISH CHURCH, WILMINGTON. 



found in all Sweden than those whom the company had 
sent out. 10 

Hollander served only until the arrival of John Printz, 
a cashiered officer, whose coming strengthened the col- 
ony considerably, as he brought both men, arms, and 
supplies. With him came John Campanius " as a mis- 
sionary. They landed at Christina in February, 1643. 

By this time (1642) the English began to come into 
the river, to the great annoyance of both Swedes and 
Dutch. They had bought lands of the Indians on both 
sides of the river. At first the Indians had refused to 



184 THE FOUNDING CjMSEW SWEDEN 

sell tliem any, yet, by the aid of a friendly Peqnot, the 
purchase was made. One party went up to the Schuyl- 
kill, another to Salem Creek, on the Jersey shore, where 
some twenty families settled. These people all came 
from New Haven Colony, 1 " which extended its protec- 
tion over them. But its authority availed them nothing, 
for all were forcibly expelled. The Swedish governor, 
after burning their trading-house, bade them begone for 
a parcel of " runnagates." The Swedes then held the 
place for themselves. 

Printz's coming put new life into the colony. His 
main purpose was to shut out the Dutch from the river, 
and he now felt strong enough to set about it. His first 
step was to plant another settlement above Christina, 
where he could better tap the Indian trade that went to 
Fort Nassau. To this end he chose an island lying just 
north of Darby Creek, good either for attack or defence, but 
better still for intercepting the trade of all that region. 
Here Printz could snap his fingers at the commissary of 
Fort Nassau. He immediately set about building a fort, 
a house for himself, and a church. This was Tinicum 
Island. The settlement was called New Gottenburg, 
and soon all the principal inhabitants had their dwellings 
and plantations here. 

Printz built still another fort at Salem Creek, whence 
the English had just been driven, calling it Elsenburg. 
This was designed to bring to all vessels passing into the 
river. A blockhouse at the mouth of the Schuylkill closed 
that feeder to the Dutch ; so that from thence to Cape 
Henlopen the Swedes had everything their own way, and, 
owing to their superior numbers, had grown as arrogant 
as the Dutch were submissive. 

Meantime (1643) a little plantation had been formed 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN 185 

near by Tinicum, called Upland, from that Swedish 
province in which the great chancellor and founder of 
New Sweden, Oxenstiern, was born. 

When Stuyvesant came into power he had positive 
orders to get rid of the Swedes. The grim veteran re- 
solved on a bold stroke. Unmoved by Printz's bluster, 
he brought matters to a crisis by building another fort 
just a little below and on the same side of the river as 
the Swedish one at Christina. It stood on the site of 
New Castle, and was called Fort Casimir. This was 
both a challenge and an affront. And it was like putting 
the astonished Swedes under lock and key. Fort Casi- 
mir made Elsenburg useless; so that place was dis- 
mantled and abandoned. 

At about the time things looked darkest for the colony 
Printz left it. John Rising came out in Printz's place; 
but the days of New Sweden Avere numbered. Rising 
showed some vigor. He took Fort Casimir from the 
Dutch, and changed its name to Trinity. In his turn 
Stuyvesant came with a great force, besieged and took 
both forts, carried off the officers to New Amsterdam, 
made the rest swear fidelity to Holland, and thus com- 
pletely broke up the Swedish colony, after a troubled 
life of only seventeen years. All this happened in the 
year 1655. 

The next year (1656) the colony on the Delaware was 
strengthened by the removal to it of a number of families 
from New Amsterdam, avIio had grants of land for a new 
town to be called New Amstel. This was the beginning 
of New Castle. 

The same year Lord Baltimore sent an officer to in- 
form the conquerors that they belonged to Maryland. 
That colony was, in fact, bounded by the fortieth par- 



180 



THE FnrNDTNO 



<w 



WAY SWEDEN 



allel, but we know that it had no existence when the 
Dutch first came into the Delaware. It will be seen, by 
and by, how persistently this claim was kept alive. 
Stuyvesant's wrath was aroused at being thus crowded 
to the wall on all sides. Instead, however, of coming to 
blows about it, the contestants wisely agreed to refer 
their dispute to their home governments, and that was 
the end of it for the present. 




; J 

i 



TRINITY FORT, FROM CAMPANIUS. 



After this most of Delaware was sold to the city of 
Amsterdam, which undertook to rule with governors of 
its own ; but their tyranny so enraged the people that 
they removed, almost in a body, over the line into Mary- 
land (1G58), and Stuyvesant was only too glad to coax 
them back again. The next year Governor Beekman 
threw up a fortification on the neglected site of De Vries' 
colony at Whorekill. At this time the population on the 
Delaware was computed to be twelve hundred persons. 

Dutch rule ceased on the Delaware with the fall of 
New Netherland in 1664. Governor Nicolls sent a 



THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN 



187 



force to take possession, which the Dutch resisted, with 
the loss to them of three killed and ten wounded before 
they would surrender. 13 In the spring of 1672 New 
Castle, or New Amstel, was made a corporation, gov- 
erned by a bailiff and six assistants. English laws were 
established, as well as English titles in room of Dutch, 
such as sheriff, for schout, and free trade was guaran- 
teed. Their isolation left the Delaware settlements 
somewhat a prey to predatory plunderers ; but they, at 
last, rested on a solid base, and were soon to be a prop 
and stay to their neighbors. 



i Lenni-Lenape ; that is, Indian Men : 
in their own tongue they called them- 
selves Woapanachy or a people living 
toward the rising sun.— Morse. The 
same authority says the native name for 
the Delaware River was Chihohocki. 

2 Fort Nassau.— One large house 
was bnilt here in Van Twiller's time. 
Ferris, Ancient Settlements, p. 52. It 
stood an English mile below Gloucester 
Point. 

3Minijit curiously dates his letter 
to the company " from Virginia." 

4 Their first landing-place was 
called Paradise Point ; same as Lewes, 
often called Hoarkill or Whorekill 
(Harlot's Creek) in old accounts, oppo- 
site the Delaware Breakwater. 

s Sir Edmunu Plowden. Winthrop 
says (1648) that Plowden had been in 
Virginia about seven years. " He came 
first with a patent of a County Palatine 
for Delaware Bay, but, wanting a pilot 
for that place, he went to Virginia, 
and there, having lost all the estate he 
brought over, and all his people scat- 
tered, he came hither [Boston] to return 
to England. 1 ' New England, ii, 396. 

6 Christina began well, but ended 
badly. 



7 Oxenstiern sent his son to visit 
the different courts of Europe with the 
parting word, " Go. my son, and see by 
what fools the world is governed." 

8 Christina, or Christianaham, was 
laid out by the surveyor, Peter Lind- 
strom. Printz moved the seat of gov- 
ernment to Tinicum, and Rising 
moved it back again. It takes the name 
of Wilmington from Joshua Willing, a 
Quaker, who laid out the town first 
called Willingstown for him, his being 
the first house built there. 

9 By The Falls, Trenton Falls is 
meant. 

i° Particular Efforts were made to 
enlist the roving Finns. One criminal is 
said to have had the choice given him 
of being hanged or transported to New 
Sweden. There was the usual mixture 
of good and bad. 

n Campanius wrote an interesting 
account of the colony. Cromwell was 
urged to make this a pretext for seizing 
the Delaware, but refused. 

i 2 New Haven Colony was nearly de- 
populated by successive emigrations. 

1 3 The Duke of York's government 
was in charge of commissioners till 
Penn's arrival. 



188 



PENN FOUNDS P EN#I YLVANIA, 



1681 



PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA, 1681 




Few characters in history have better merited the 
proud title of public benefactor than William Penn, the 
Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. There are fewer still 
about whom the world's opinion is so well settled. That 
he was not perfect need not be denied ; and though he did 
not escape calumny, his fame has outlived if not silenced 
it. There could be no truer index to his character than 
the story of what he did, out of his own great heart, for 
the oppressed and down-trodden among his fellow-men. 

Admiral Sir William Penn, of much renown in the 
Dutch wars, was William Penn's father. The two had 
never been on good terms since 
young Penn had turned Quaker, 
to his father's deep disgust. The 
proud old man felt himself dis- 
graced. He was gouty, irascible, 
and violent ; and William was 
quietly stubborn. So the breach 
widened between them. Once 
the son had been sent off to Paris 
to see if the follies of that gay 
city would not cure him. Twice, 
in a fit of rage, his father had 
turned him out of doors. But 
all would not do. The son stood 
as stoutly up for his adopted 
faith as ever the father had faced the battle from his 
quarter-deck. On the admiral's death-bed, however, 
these two strong but warring natures were reconciled to 
one another. The admiral died rich ; so William Penn 



PENN SEAL. 



PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA, 1081 189 

fell heir to a great estate. How lie used it is the lesson 
of his life. 

Soon after his father's death Penn was called upon to 
settle a dispute between the New Jersey proprietors. It 
was here that he served his apprenticeship at coloniza- 
tion. For some years he was closely identified with New 
Jersey affairs : first as mediator, then as counsellor, and 
finally as co-worker ; so that he was by no means without 
knowledge or experience of what that work called for.' 
Out of this preparation grew Penn's resolve to found a 
colony of his own. 

Among other things the admiral had left an unsettled 
claim of <£16,000 against the state. Penn knew there 
was nothing the king would not sooner part with than 
money ; so he asked for a large tract of American lands 
instead. The chosen tract was then mostly a wilder- 
ness, peopled by savages. To some, the idea of sending 
out Quakers, who would not fight, among savages, whose 
trade was war, seemed much like a jest. Penn found 
getting his charter no easy task; but after waiting 
nearly a year his perseverance won the day. The scheme 
promised to clear the kingdom of a great many discon- 
tented people. Poor England ! She was fated to see her 
most flourishing colonies peopled by those she had turned 
from her doors. Penn's grant covered forty thousand 
square miles, west of the Delaware." By a scratch of the 
pen he found himself the greatest landed proprietor the 
world ever saw. Then there arose a discussion over 
the name. Penn wanted it to be Sylvania, as descriptive 
of a wooded country. To this the king aptly prefixed 
Penn, in the late admiral's honor, so making the name 
an enduring record of the debt and its payment. So 
Pennsylvania it was, in spite of Penn's earnest objec- 



190 



PENN FOUNDS I 



W 



YLVANIA, 1(581 



tions. And so it chanced that his was the only American 
colony to boar the founder's family name. 

The charter of Pennsylvania did not give the proprie- 
tor such ample privileges as did that of Maryland. The 
day for that had gone by ; for even the Stuart kings 
had learned something by experience. Penn had full 
power to govern given him, but his laws were to be ap- 
proved by the crown. With the aid of trusted friends he 
drew up a constitution for his province. Its two main 
principles were civil and religious free- 
dom. There was to be an executive 
council of seventy-two, of which the 
proprietor or his deputy was to be the 
president. This body prepared all 
laws. And there was to be an assembly 
of two hundred. This body assented 
to or amended them. Both bodies were 
to be chosen by universal suffrage. 3 
All Christians, except bound servants 
and convicts, who should take up land 
or pay taxes, could vote. Penn's mind, 
in drawing up this liberal contract with 
his people, is best set forth in his own words : "Any 
government is free to the people under it, where the laws 
rule, and the people are a party to those laws." With- 
out doubt Penn's liberality toward the people sprang 
from the belief that if he dealt fairly by them they would 
by him. This doctrine of governing through love, rather 
than fear, shows us what a high-minded man Penn Avas, 
though it half convinces us that he was not as deeply 
read in human nature as he might have been. However, 
progress in governments has only come through many 
failures. Penn wanted to try his experiment, and it was 




penn's chair. 



PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA, 1081 191 

right lie should have the chance. Montesquieu, the great 
political scientist, calls him the modern Lycurgus. At 
any rate, Penn did this : He broke clear away from the 
old trammels that had bound down the people, for so 
many centuries, in mean servility to kings, lords, and 
princes. He bade them hold up their heads, and be 



INDIAN FORT, SUSQUEHANNA. (OLD PRINT.) 

men. So far, then, he was a lifter-up of men, an apostle 
of manhood. 

There is an anecdote told of him, said to be true, 
too, illustrating this independent spirit. Shortly after 
James II. became king, Penn was given an audience. He 
found the king standing in the middle of a group of 
courtiers, who vied with each other in trying who should 
do him most honor. Of course, all except the king were 



192 PENN FOUNDS PEI^SYLVANIA, 1681 

uncovered. Penn, however, came toward the king with 
his hat on his head. Instantly, with mock deference, the 
king took off his own. " Why dost thou take off thy 
hat ? " asked Penn. " Because it is the custom of the 
place for only one man to remain covered," James re- 
plied. Whether Penn took the hint or not is not stated. 

One of Penn's laws — and it should be in every statute- 
book — punished bribery at elections, first by disfranchis- 
ing the receiver, and then by prohibiting the giver from 
holding office. Yice and immorality were as severely 
treated, plays, games, and masquerades as strictly pro- 
hibited, as they had ever been among the Puritans. 
Where there was so much to do Penn seems to have 
thought there should be no foolish waste of time. 

There was still another thing for which Penn deserves 
great credit. In the very first paper he drew up the 
Indians were promptly taken under the protection of his 
laws. " No man," he says, " shall by any ways or means, 
in word or deed, affront or wrong an Indian, but he shall 
incur the same penalty as if he had committed it against 
his fellow-planters." This was all the more wise because 
Penn knew how quickly the Indians would resent an in- 
jury ; and he also knew, from travellers who had been 
to their great Susquehanna Fort, 4 that they were both 
numerous and powerful. Indeed, the whole instrument 
shows Penn to have carefully studied how Christian 
principles could best be applied to human government. 
Punishments he knew there must be. Yet even these are 
excused by the wise declaration that " Liberty, without 
obedience, is confusion ; and obedience, without liberty, 
is slavery." 

The next step was to take legal possession of the coun- 
try ; as for the people, there were but a handful scattered 



PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA, 1681 193 

along the banks of the Delaware, from Upland to the 
Schuylkill. Penn chose his relation, William Markham, 
as his deputy. Markham first went to New York, saw 
the governor, showed his credentials, and got an order 
to the Duke's officers to turn over their authority to him. 
He then sailed for the Delaware, where he held his first 
court at Upland, September 13th. After looking the 
country over, Markham wrote home in warm praise of 
it, as well he might. 

All summer preparations to send out colonists had 
been quietly making. Three ships sailed this autumn. 
Two only reached the 
Delaware, where the new 
settlers mostly wintered 
among the Swedes, at Up- 
land or elsewhere. Penn 
says the winter of 1681 
was very mild, scarcely 
any ice forming at all. 
They found willing 
hearts and helping hands, 
so that there is no story, like that of Virginia or Mas- 
sachusetts, to sadden the page of history. 

Penn, himself, was ready to follow these pioneers, 
when he found that he had overlooked one most impor- 
tant fact. His charter did not give him control of the 
Delaware to the sea. Virginia had the James, Maryland 
the Chesapeake, and New York the Hudson, but he could 
have nothing to say about what his ships should pay,^ or 
how long be stopped, or on what pretexts, on entering 
the Delaware ; and the Delaware was his only road. New 
Castle was already the seaport, and New Castle belonged 
to the Duke of York. Penn knew he could not afford to 
13 




PENN'S brewing-jar. 



194 I'KNN FOUNJ>S PE 



tUf^ 



leave mutters in this wise ; so again lie set himself to work, 
and again he was successful in getting from the Duke all 
of what had been New Sweden down to Cape Henlopen. 
Having now shaped his province to his liking, Penn, 
himself, set sail for it in August, 1G82, thirty-eight years 
old, well, strong, and resolute. Late in October he ar- 
rived at New Castle. With feelings no man but himself 
could know, William Penn, then and there, first set foot 
on the soil of Pennsylvania. 

On the 28th of October Penn received his new terri- 
tory from the Duke's officers resident. The ceremony 
itself is instructive, as showing how antiquated forms 
hold sway over the minds of men — forms going back even 
of title-deeds or written records. Says one of the Duke's 
officers: " We did give unto him, the said William Penn, 
Esq., actual and peaceable possession of the fort at New 
Castle by giving him the key thereof, to lock upon him- 
self alone the door, which being opened again by him, 
we did deliver also unto him one turf with a twig upon it, 
a porringer with river water and soil, in part of all what 
was specified in the said indenture or deed from his royal 
highness." 

Leaving Markham to receive the settlements below, 
Penn then Avent up to Upland, where he w r as joyfully wel- 
comed, the Swedes declaring it the best day they had 
ever seen. Here Penn called a meeting of his first as- 
sembly for December 4th. At this time, too, the name 
of Upland was changed to Chester," so effacing one 
more evidence of Swedish rule. After renewing the 
commissions of local officers, Penn went on his way, well 
satisfied with his reception by the old settlers. 

I See chapters on the Jerseys. cast by Delaware River, from twelve 

II The tract was " bounded on the miles distant from New Castle towue, 



PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA, 1681 



195 



unto the three and fortieth degree of 
Northern latitude."— Charter. 

3 Both bodies were too large. The 
Council was afterward cut down to eigh- 
teen, the Assembly to thirty-six mem- 
bers. 

4 Susquehanna Fort is mentioned in 
a letter to George Fox of 1660. Goates, 
the writer, had been there. 

5 Chester. The tradition is that this 
name, from English Chester, was adopted 
at the suggestion of a fellow-passenger of 



Penn's, named Pearson. Penn went to 
Kobert Wade's house, which stood about 
two hundred yards from Chester Creek, 
near the Delaware. Wade, who came out 
with Fenwick (see W. »7ersey), moved 
across the river to Upland in 1675. He 
owned all the land on that side of the 
creek opposite Chester, Kobert Sunder- 
land, a Swede, owning on the Chester 
side. The first meeting of Quakers for 
religious worship in Pennsylvania was 
probably held in Wade's house. 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 



These formalities completed, Penn next visited the 
spot where his capital city was being laid out, in accord- 
ance with plans made before it was known where it was to 
be. 1 He had decided to call it Philadelphia, after one of 
the Seven Churches of Asia, to which the Apostle was 
commanded to write. This name, meaning Brotherly 
Love, embodied, in one word, all Penn's philosophy 
of government. His agents already had found a suit- 
able site, some miles above Upland, on a high, flat, 
wooded peninsula formed by the entrance of the Schuyl- 
kill into the Delaware. The ground enclosed by the 
two rivers was shaped something like an hour-glass. It 
was decided to begin building at the narrowest part, or 
neck ; and here, from river to river, in straight streets, 
crossing each other at right angles, nine across and 
twenty -three lengthwise, the coming city was just begin- 
ning to show some signs of life. 2 

If not too far from the ocean, the site was splendidly 
adapted to commerce by its long, deep water frontage. 
Indeed, it was thought that the fronts of both rivers 



106 



THE WILDING OF 



ILADELPIIIA 



would be first improved, and that building would grad- 
ually extend back from each until the two divisions 
should meet. This was certainly looking a long way 
ahead when the site was covered with trees, yet we know 
that it has been more than realized. Penn's agents, 




PHILADELPHIA AND VICINITY. 



therefore, did wisely in choosing for the future, as well 
;is for the present. 

The site had one more advantage in being already occu- 
pied by a Swedish hamlet. It does seem strange to speak 
of a city as beginning that was already begun. Yet, in 
this case there is a clear distinction to be made. 

We already know that the neighborhood of Penn's 
Philadelphia, or that part now known as Southwark, had 
been occupied, since Printz's time, by some few Swedes, 






THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA 197 

who called their pretty little hamlet Wicaco. They had 
since turned the block-house he built into a church. 3 
When Penn got there he found the land was claimed by 
these proprietors, with whom, however, he readily agreed 
for their holdings, 4 and who long formed a little colony 
by themselves, preserving their own speech, worship, and 
manners, on the skirt of their more pushing neighbors. 

These Swedes then were, at least, the first inhabitants 
of Philadelphia, if not its founders. They led very easy, 
comfortable lives, because their wants were few and 
easily supplied. They had their gardens. They planted 
a little corn and tobacco. And they spun their own flax 
for their own wear. The men were strong, healthy, and 
industrious ; the women good housekeepers. Yet we are 
told that until the English came among them their clothes 
were very mean indeed, though they then bestirred them- 
selves to look as well as their neighbors. We may be 
sure they had never dreamed of their secluded little 
hamlet growing to be a great, prosperous city of a mill- 
ion inhabitants. 

These old settlers now showed the new ones how to fell 
trees and build houses. Their own were put together 
with very little iron-work. All they wanted was an axe. 
With this they would cut down a tree and chop it into 
logs of proper length in less time than two men would 
have taken in saAving it. Then, with the aid of only some 
wooden wedges, they would very handily split up a log 
into boards or clap-boards. This was the sort of work 
now going on all along the line, and it was no small help, 
we may be sure, to find such active and intelligent, as 
well as economical, laborers ready to the work. 

As the first thing to be done was to get a roof over 
one's head, the first houses were such as could be quickly 



198 



the BriLi>ix<; <>] 



IIILAhKLPJIIA 



put together — log frames, roughly jointed with the axe, 
fastened together with hand-made treenails, and covered 
with clap-boards, split as just described. They seldom 
had more than two rooms, or any other floor than the 
bare ground. It is true that a few better buildings woe 




^v^**«^& 



PSfk. 



LETITIA COTTAGE. 



going up here and there, one for Penn among the rest, 
which has lasted until now. 5 For these the materials 
were mostly brought from England. But for some years 
to come Philadelphia was to be a city of log cabins. 

During this fall and winter (1G82 83) twenty-three 
ships arrived crowded with settlers — a fleet, an army 
consecrated to fair peace. There were men of all occu- 
pations and all conditions, for Penn would discourage 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA ] 99 

none from coming because they were poor, if they were 
only honest, sober, and industrious. Many horses, 
cattle, sheep, and swine also came in these ships. 

Philadelphia was now all bustle. Not to every one's 
lot has it fallen to see a city being built, but we can well 
imagine it. With ships unloading against the banks, 
great hea23S of merchandise would be every hour rising- 
higher and higher, amid the cries of the sailors or shouts 
of the landsmen. At short intervals we should hear 
some tall tree come crashing down before the wood- 
man's axe. Out of the woods would come a great noise 
of axes and hammers. We should hear the neighing of 
horses and bleating of sheep ; should see, behind the axe- 
man, broad vistas in the forest, to show the direction of 
coming streets. Men would be pointing to this or that 
vacant spot of ground, and saying, " This is mine." This 
would continue as long as daylight lasted, and begin 
again with the rising sun. When darkness fell many a 
little group of men and women would be seen taking their 
evening meal around their camp-fire. Here all the talk 
would be of how soon the house would be finished. And 
here many a silent prayer was put up before the weary 
toilers slept their first sleep on a bed of green boughs 
under the broad canopy of heaven. 

But the time was much too short to provide such shelter 
for all against the winter. So many were forced to live 
in caves, dug out of the high banks along the river, as the 
Swedes had done before them. In this Crusoe-like life 
there was a spice of adventure, a calling forth of every 
man's best energies and true character, an incentive to 
patient trust in the future. As Penn well said : "It is 
even one step toward heaven to return to nature." 

Penn saw his city rising around him. Looking over 



200 THE BUILDING olK»HILADELPHIA 

the country round, laying out townships, making out 
deeds, hearing reports or settling disputes, kept him a 
busy man we can well believe. The temper of the people 
was everything, and that appears to have been most ex- 
cellent. God could be praised without fear of a prison. 
Here every man was most truly the architect of his own 
fortunes. And, above all, ho was what he had never 
been in England, a free man in every sense of the 
word. 

As the soul of the enterprise, Penn gave himself up to 
it without stint. He was a man who could toil terribly, 
and he did not now spare himself. Early in December 
he was back at Chester, holding his first assembly. 
New Castle was annexed to Pennsylvania, his laws were 
adopted and put in force, and all foreigners naturalized. 
This meeting gave Penn an excellent opportunity to see 
the people at their best, especially the Swedes, of whom 
he speaks only in praise. In short, he w^as so well pleased 
with the behavior of his first legislature as to say that 
" such an assembly, for Love, Unity, and Concord, scarce- 
ly ever was known in these parts." 

From Chester Penn went to Maryland, where he and 
Lord Baltimore talked over their differences about their 
respective boundaries. Neither would abate anything < >f 
his claims. If Baltimore was right, Penn's grant of the 
Lower Counties would be worthless. If Penn was right, 
Baltimore would be cut off from the Delaware. As they 
could come to no agreement, the matter was left to a 
future day ; but in it lay the germ of much future trouble. 

With spring came renewed activity. The cave-dwell- 
ers came forth from their dismal retreats. By July 
eighty houses had been built at Philadelphia, and before 
the year was out twice as many. In October of this year 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA 



201 



(1683) some German families founded the suburb of Ger- 
mantown, a name accurately describing itself. 

In those days there was little difference between 
country life and city life. Yet men must and would push 
out into the wilderness, away from their fellows. One 
such says : " I have rented a house for my family during 
this winter, and have built a little house on my land for 




PENN MANSION, PHILADELPHIA, LATER RESIDENCE. 



my domestics. I live on the banks of the Schuylkill, 
near enough to the city of Philadelphia, and I have 
already cleared six acres. The woods are full of oaks, 
very high and straight. Many are two feet thick, and 
some even more, and yet a Swede will cut down for you 
a dozen of the largest in a day." This man's lands are, 
perhaps, within the city limits to-day. 

Again he says : "I can truly say that since I left Bristol 
I have never wished to return there. For the most part, 



20*2 THE BUILDIXO (^PHILADELPHIA 

men eat here rye bread, not because they have not wheat, 
but because they have more rye. They have also as good 
butter and as good cheese as inmost places in England." 

Some English had also gone into the upper country 
with many cattle. They had been able to prepare the 
new ground so as to sow forty or fifty bushels of wheat 
against the winter. Some had gone to live among the 
Swedes in the older settlements, preferring, it would 
seem, to buy houses ready built and lands ready tilled, 
to breaking up new ground for themselves. These are 
but incidents of the general course of things. 

The great influx of people caused the early casting of 
the new settlements into three counties — Philadelphia, 
Chester, and Bucks — and of the older ones into three 
more — New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. 7 These counties 
were again divided into townships, of about 5,000 acres, 
one of which became the county-seat, or political centre, 
of each. Unlike New England, where the town was the 
political unit, complete in all its parts, in Penn's province 
the county was the political unit. 

The principle of paying the Indians for their lands had 
been more or less followed in the older colonies ; so 
that it did not originate with William Penn. The colo- 
nists soon found out that any other course was fraught 
with peril to them. It was, therefore, the part of wis- 
dom as well as justice. But too often the rule had been 
to take the land first and pay for it afterward. All just 
men Avere agreed that the Indians were the rightful 
owners; but all men were not just. It is true that their 
lands had usually been bought for a mere trifle ; but the 
Indians were satisfied with having their rights recognized 
by the white man, and besides they had no very clear 
ideas of values, title-deeds, or freeholds. 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA 



203 



Penn started out with this rule of even-handed justice 
fully admitted. He instructed Markliam to buy lands 
as they were needed ; and when he came out himself to 
the colony he established it, as his policy, that no lands 
were to be occupied until the Indian title had been extin- 
guished. This conciliated the Indians. This enabled the 




TREATY GROUND, KENSINGTON. 

settler to lie down in his lonely cabin without fear. And 
there was peace, harmony, and good will between them. 
There is a tradition, which has hardened into history, 
though without actual record, but which men would 
rather believe than not, that Penn held a great treaty 
with the Indians at Shackamaxon, now Kensington, m 
November, 1682, at which time and place he laid before 
them his plans and his wishes. It is not only a tradi- 
tion of the whites, but of the Indians also. This treaty 
has become historic. Men do not so much ask whether 



2<>4 THE BUILDING < >WJI ILADELPIN A 

this event took place at the exacl hour claimed for it, as 
whether the great principle of equal rights was laid 
down some time. 

This alone makes the event worth remembering, and 
of this we think there can be no reasonable doubt. Men 
do not pay respect to the day of the week or month or 
year, as such, but to some grand idea. We know that 
the Pilgrims did not land on any particular day, but 
the fact that they did land is commemorated on a day 
fixed only by general consent. So with this treaty. 

There was a treaty made in 1682, but not by Penn ; 
Markham made it for him. The date on the memorial 
monument may, therefore, be a slip of the chisel. It is 
more likely to have been as late as the next year before 
he was able to get the principal chiefs together at Shacka- 
maxon. But they came at last in all their savage finery ; 
and there, under the shade of a stately elm, 8 Penn spoke 
to them, not as the strong to the weak, but as man to 
man. Then and there he proffered them a true and last- 
ing friendship, calling on the Great Spirit of both the 
white man and the red to bear witness to his words. 
The Indians believed him, and they never repented of 
their trust, or ceased to speak of him as the great and 
good Onas, which, strangely enough, meant, in their 
tongue, a quill or pen. 

Thus a simple act of justice has become the most 
memorable thing in all Penn's career. It was his proud- 
est legacy to posterity ; and posterity has built upon it 
as the corner-stone of his character. 

Matters of public concern now began to be looked to. 
The wants of a population thus suddenly thrown to- 
gether in a wilderness can be. best measured by glancing 
at the rise of remote cities of the West in our own time. 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA 



205 



But step by step the commonwealth began to knit itself 
together. Soon Philadelphia had a meeting-house and 
public school; Chester a mill, in which Penn was a 
partner. The school was not free, but the time had not 
yet come for that. A weekly post was being carried be- 
tween Philadelphia and the river towns. Wherries took 
people from one to the other to buy or sell ; wharves be- 
gan to be run out into the stream ; carts to be seen in 
the streets ; men to ply 
their various trades : 
and still the tide of im- 
migration flowed stead- 
ily in. In Philadel- 
phia the number of 
houses had more than 
doubled in twelve 
months. Penn had, 
himself, set the exam- 
ple of better building. 
In size and looks the 
houses now going up 
showed steady im- 
provement ; so that, 
with her three hundred and fifty buildings, Philadel- 
phia was looking more like a city every day. 

By August, 1685, about six hundred houses had gone 
up. Robert Turner claims to have built the first brick 
house, bricks being easily and cheaply made on the 
ground, to encourage others to build of like durable ma- 
terials. In a letter to Penn, Turner mentions that " Ar- 
thur Cook is building him a brave brick house near 
William Frampton's, on the Front ; for William Framp- 
ton hath since built a good brick house by his brew- 




TKEATY MONUMENT. 



206 



I'll i: BUILDING OF 



HILADELPHLA 



house and bake-house, and let the other for ;ui ordinary." 
Turner himself was putting up another brick house of 
three stories, with an arched underground passage-way 

to the river. John Day was building a good house after 
the London fashion, mostly of brick, with a large frame 
of wood in the front for shop-windows. And so he goes 
on enumerating the builders by name. We can well 
imagine how interesting these particulars must have been 
to Penn. 

AW also learn that most of the new houses had balco- 
nies. Town lots were in brisk demand, or, as Turner 
puts it, "Lots are much desired in the town ; great buy- 
ing of one another." 

We can almost see rising before us the foundation of 
that " large, plain brick house for a meeting-house (sixty 
foot long and about forty broad)," Turner hopes will soon 
be up, " there being many hearts and hands at work that 
will do it ; " and that other large meeting-house, " fifty 
foot long, and thirty-eight broad, also going up on the 
river front for an Evening Meeting." 



1 Pejtn's surveyor and assistant in 
laying out the new city was Thomas 
Holme, who was also a member of the 
first provincial council. 

" The North and South streets were 
named after trees, native to the vicinity. 
This original instance has since been fol- 
lowed in many cities of the United 
States— Cincinnati and St. Louis, for ex- 
ample. 

3 Swedish Block-house was first 
used as a place of worship in 1677, it be- 
ing no longer needed as a place of de- 
fence. The Swedes have here a burial- 
ground. In 1700 this first church was 
taken clown and another erected on the 
same site, partly with materials taken 
from Printz's church at Tinicum. Ferris' 
Early Settlements, 15G. In the choir is 



the inscription, " The people who sat in 
darkness have seen a great light." 

4 The Swedes had bought from the 
Indians; Penn bought from the three 
sons of Swan Swansou the land to lay out 
Philadelphia. 

5 Letitia Cottage, as it is called, 
from Penn's having given it to Letitia, 
his daughter by his first marriage, was 
taken down on its old site, a few years 
ago, and carefully rebuilt iu Fairmount 
Park, each timber and brick being care- 
fully put back iuits original place. Penn 
also built for himself a fine brick country 
house, which he designed to be the pro- 
prietary residence, and called Pennsbury 
Manor. It was in Bucks County, on a 
peninsula jutting out into a broad bend 
of the Delaware, opposite Bordentown. 



THE BUILDING OF PHILADELPHIA 



207 



Perm employed two Frenchmen to plant 
a vineyard for him. This was his resi- 
dence after his return to Pennsylvania 
in 1699, though he had another in Phila- 
delphia, popularly known as the Slate- 
Roof House, in which he lived part of 
the time. This stood on the corner of 
Second Street and Norris' Alley ; taken 
down in 1868. 

6 Germantown Settlers were Men- 
nonites, whose creed forbade its follow- 
ers from holding civil offices, going to 
law, taking an oath, fighting, or taking 
interest for money. This was the mother 
church of that sect in the United States. 
A severe battle was fought here, Oct. 4, 
1777. See Pennsylvania Magazine, vols. 
4, 5, 6, for an interesting account of this 
place, now within the corporate limits 
of Philadelphia. 

7 The Three Lower Counties, now 
the State of Delaware, had previously 
borne the names of New Castle, Whore- 
kill, and St. Jones. 



8 The Treaty Elm stood on the 
Van Duzon estate in Philadelphia. It was 
uprooted by a gale in 1S10. Some say 
it was pulled down to escape the depreda- 
tions of relic-hunters. At this time the 
tree was believed to be two hundred and 
eighty years old. In 1827 the Penn Socie- 
ty placed the monument, referred to in 
the text, on the historic spot. A scion of 
the old tree was, however, preserved by 
removal to another spot, and after grow- 
ing fifty years is to be transplanted to 
the original ground again. The painter 
West, a native of Pennsylvania, has per- 
petuated the treaty in his well-known 
historical picture. His portrait of Penn 
was for many years the standard one, 
until a more satisfactory likeness was 
found in England, copied in 1S74, and 
the copy placed by the side of West's 
Treaty in the National Museum, Inde- 
pendence Hall, Philadelphia. 



RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1684-1701 



Two reasons now urgently called Penn back to Eng- 
land. One concerned his province, and one himself. 
The first was his controversy with Lord Baltimore, which 
must be settled in England, if at all, as both now admit- 
ted ; the other was to defend himself against the false- 
hoods his enemies had been spreading during his ab- 
sence. At one time they said he was dead ; at another 
a Jesuit ; and some good men really believed he had pre- 
tended to be a Quaker only to better serve his own ends. 1 
Penn was nothing if not courageous. To attack him was 
to attack his province. But here his hands were tied. 
He therefore sailed for England in August, 1684, to meet 
his accusers face to face. 



208 RISE <>F THE C().MM()#VKALTII, KM-1701 

King James settled the boundary question in what 
seemed to him the easiest way. He divided the penin- 
sula between the two claimants, giving to Penn the half 
bordering on the Delaware, and to Baltimore that lying 
next the Chesapeake. 2 

Meantime Penn was kept busy refuting the calumnies 
of his accusers. To some he wrote private letters, which 
breathe a noble spirit. In one of these he says, " I dare 
not deny others what I crave for myself, I mean Liberty 
for the exercise of my religion." ; He printed tracts, 
also, in which, over and over again, he repeated his well- 
known opinions. But those opinions, also, were unpalat- 
able to the great majority. If he was right, they were 
wrong ; and it was far too soon for a free and fair dis- 
cussion of all the questions at issue. The world has, at 
length, come over to Penn's side. Could ever man have 
a more sufficient vindication ? 

We have seen that Penn had made universal toleration 
the corner-stone of his new commonwealth. If we keep 
this in mind, his later acts seem consistent enough. If 
he had any principle on which his mind was fully settled, 
it was this one. But Penn was far in advance of his age. 
England was torn by the quarrels between Episcopalians, 
Dissenters, and Roman Catholics, though all alike were 
united in their hatred of universal toleration. Each be- 
lieved the other so much in the wrong that passive en- 
durance was a crime against conscience. Penn's known 
convictions were quite enough, therefore, to bring upon 
him the suspicions of all three. 

One should, therefore, read English history, from the 
death of Charles II. (1685) to the abdication of James 
II. (1688), to see how these contentions, embittered by the 
unspeakable folly of a despotic king, at length brought 



RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1684-1701 209 

about a revolution, in which the Stuart dynasty dis- 
appeared. William and Mary were called to the vacant 
throne, and England became Protestant England again. 
In these exciting events Penn bore a more or less active 
part as the friend of James. To be a friend of James 
was to be an enemy of the State ; hence Penn was sus- 
pected, accused, and imprisoned. 4 




friends' meeting-house. 



Penn left Pennsylvania, prosperous and contented. He 
was able to say of it, " We are the wonder of our neigh- 
bors, as in our coming and numbers, so to ourselves in our 
health, subsistence, and success ; " and of himself, with 
equal truth, if a little boastfully, " I have led the greatest 
colony into America that ever any man did upon a private 
credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever 
were in it are to be found among us." This was strictly 
true, and it seems amazing that any one man should have 
conceived and carried out such a project, almost alone. 
14 



210 kisi<: of the com M(tf\vK.\i;rn, 1684-1701 

Besides England and Germany, people were coming in 
from Virginia, Maryland, New York, and New England. 
This shows us that an impression had gone forth favor- 
able to Pennsylvania. No doubt, Quakers everywhere 
looked to Philadelphia as their city of refuge, and to 
Pennsylvania as their own pet experiment of government. 
But Penn had invited in all, of every Christian sect, 
without exception. Numbers came, and when they came 
they quickly fell in with those of their own communion. 
Soon there were respectable bodies of Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians, Baptists, German Lutherans, with a 
sprinkling of French Huguenots. These people had by 
no means left their prejudices behind them ; so that re- 
ligious distinctions, perhaps, were as closely drawn here 
as elsewhere. 

Then, again, with increased population men began to 
draw themselves together into parties. The Englishman 
considers this mode of expressing his will as his birth- 
right. So the infant colony had scarce burst its shell, 
before parties began forming. First, there was a party 
opposed to Quaker rule, as such — to Quaker speech, 
manners, and garb. The Church of England man could 
not bear to be thee'd and thou'd by a Friend, or to see 
him keep his hat on before a magistrate, or refuse to take 
an oath in court. No matter what William Penn might 
think about it, it could not be right. Two dissatisfied 
men, in a corner, form an opposition. This was simply 
an opposition. 

Then there Avas another party, in the Lower Counties, 
already jealous of the growing power of the province. So 
long as they had held this power themselves they were 
satisfied, but when they saw it like to pass away from 
them they seem to have preferred their old condition, be- 



RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1684-1701 211 

fore the union, to being a minority in it. This party 
had a settled object in view. It became an obstruction- 
ist party, and finally won separation by this means. 
Lastly, there were those worthless adventurers who find 
their way to all new countries, as scum drifts with the 
tide. When the first settlers moved out of their caves, 
these vagabonds moved in, and ere long became a scan- 
dal to their neighbors. 

While Penn had felt so sudden a change of fortune in 
England as to fall from the highest favor to the lowest, 
discontent began to show itself in the province. There 
began to be grumbling about quit-rents. A few paid un- 
willingly, some not at all, and many of easy consciences 
would not pay because others did not. Some said it was 
a perpetual tax ; others a perpetual mortgage. At the 
bottom was the idea that no man has the right to tax 
posterity. It is never difficult to create a feeling against 
the payment of a tax, and this quit-rent was not only a 
tax but an incumbrance. With Penn out of the way, it 
did not seem so difficult. Instead of getting the hand- 
some income he expected, Penn found himself without 
money when he most needed it. So a party grew up 
against quit-rents ; and where this party was strong, of- 
ficers of the law could not, or would not, enforce pay- 
ment. Demagogues were not wanting to stir up strife, 
and strife began. 

The first quarrels broke out between the Council and 
Assembly. It was understood that the Council was for 
Penn, while the Assembly was against him, or, at least, 
would pass no laws enforcing the collection of the ob- 
noxious quit-rents. 

When Penn heard of these things he felt deeply mor- 
tified, if not discouraged. He now put the executive 



212 RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1684-1701 

power in the hands of commissioners, called for the 
repeal of all laws made in his absence, and complained 
of the non-payment of his quit-rents and other dues. 
He appointed John Blackwell, an old soldier, deputy- 
governor. Blackwell, after a short trial, threw up the 
office in disgust — not, however, till he had told Penn, in 
so many words, that his boasted constitution was a fail- 
ure. Penn's friends warmly urged his immediate return, 
but Penn was no longer free to come and go ; moreover, 
he was deeply in debt. 

Outwardly, however, the province steadily prospered. 
In 1685 William Bradford set up the first printing-press 
at Philadelphia. 5 By Penn's direction the Friends' 
Public Grammar School was opened there in 1689. The 
next year saw a paper-mill started on the Schuylkill. 
Improvements in buildings, improvements in -farms, in 
roads, in public works of every sort, showed confidence 
in the stability of the country at any rate, whatever 
might happen to the government. 

Penn's enemies at length triumphed over him for a 
brief season. By representing that the country was 
worse than misgoverned — and matters had indeed stead- 
ily gone on from bad to worse — the king was induced to 
take the government out of Penn's hands (1692), and put 
it back into those of the governor of New York. So 
here was history repeating itself. 

The next year, however, Penn fully cleared himself 
from the charges brought against him. Once more a free 
man, he was soon able to get justice done him at court. 
His province was restored. To return to it was an im- 
perative necessity, yet it was five years more before he did 
so. Was Penn just a little sluggish, except when roused to 
action by some pressing need ? During these five years 



EISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1684-1701 



213 



he travelled, preached, and wrote much, mostly in de- 
fence of Quaker principles. He brought back with him 
James Logan as his secretary. 

Penn's welcome back was warm and sincere, yet after 
fifteen years' absence he no longer knew the people or 
they him. He could not but be struck by the changes 
around him. Brick 
and stone had 
mostly taken the 
place of log-cabins 
and dark caves. 
Above two thou- 
sand houses, large- 
ly brick, and often 
of three stories, like 
those of London, 
extended from 
Front to Second 
Street. There was 
a fine town-house, 
a handsome mar- 
ket-house, and a 
secure prison. The 
narrator from 
whom these facts are taken points with pride to the thirty 
carts or more that the city could then boast. 6 There 
were several churches, that built for the Church of Eng- 
land being the finest of all. There were wharves, tim- 
ber-yards, and ship-yards ; warehouses and docks, with a 
crane for unloading vessels. There were rope- walks, 
malt-houses, breweries, and bake-houses. Besides paper, 
some druggets, crapes, camlets, and serges were being 
made. The Germans were making excellent linen of 




JAMES LOGAN. 



214 RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1084 1701 

home-raised flax. Formerly people went to the fairs at 
Burlington to buy or sell, now they had three in a year of 
their own. Men were growing rich by trade. The gen- 
try were already erecting fine houses outside the city, 
and to Penn, who had just landed, its growth must ev- 
erywhere have seemed a wonder indeed. 

The province exported horses, pipe-staves, salted meats, 
bread, flour, grain, potatoes, and some tobacco. Those 
commodities went to the other colonies, to the West 
Indies, to Newfoundland, and to England. From the 
West Indies it took in exchange rum, sugar, molasses, 
salt, and also negroes ; for domestic slavery was now 
firmly established in Pennsylvania, though strong effort 
was making to render it as little oppressive as possible. 
Even then, good men were trying to awaken the public 
conscience to its evils. 

All trades were represented in the metropolis ; and all 
earned, better wages than in England ; but the best-paid 
mechanics were carpenters, bricklayers, and masons, who 
received from five to six shillings per day, a sum nearly 
equal to thrice as much at the present time. Seamstresses 
and washerwomen received exorbitant wages, because of 
the scarcity of that kind of labor. So with those who 
took in spinning, knitting, or household sewing. 

Wheat was the great farm crop. Iron ore had been found, 
but not coal, though old miners believed it would be. 
Some veins of asbestos, then little known and much 
wondered at, had been discovered near the Brandywine. 
Its popular name was Salamander Stone. 

The population of the province at this time was roughly 
estimated at 20,000. It had easily outstripped all com- 
petitors, with an even, steady growth that was doubtless 
owning to its freedom from wars, pestilence, or famine. 



EISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 16S4-1701 



215 



Here men had not been starved, frozen, or massacred in 
cold blood. Compared with Virginia, compared with 
New England, or even New York, the rise of this com- 
monwealth was exceptional. Yet there was grave dis- 
content among the people. 




PENN'S TOWN RESIDENCE. 

(Just before being taken clown. 



Penn did his best to reconcile their differences. He 
went among them, he heard them patiently, he argued 
with them in the best spirit. One day he was mission- 
ary, the next politician, the next law-maker again. They 
were irreconcilable, and he had to submit. It was hard 
to find that his province had grown away from him, yet 
such was the fact : still harder to have to admit that the 



216 



RISE OF THE COM3 



yi<jw\ 



VEALTH, 10S4-1701 



power his own hands and brains had raised up was be- 
come too strong to be longer ruled by him ; yet this was 
too true. Within his own breast Penn could but own 
himself a defeated man. Yet he prepared to meet de- 
feat valiantly, as became him. 

He first agreed to give the Lower Counties a separate 
government. This quieted their chronic grievance of 
being always outvoted. He then (1701) approved a new 
constitution, in which this right is expressed. He ap- 
pointed an executive council of eight, and after making 
Andrew Hamilton his deputy, and granting Philadelphia 
a city charter, he left Pennsylvania never to return. 



1 See Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. 6, 
II., A Vindication of William Penn. 

a This boundary was not definitely 
fixed until 1732, when Perm's heirs and 
the first Lord Baltimore's great-grandson 
joined in a deed for that purpose ; or 
completed until 1768, hy the surveyors, 
Mason and Dixon, whose line, as long 
as slavery existed, was popularly spoken 
of as dividing the free from the slave 
States. 

3 See Penn's correspondence with 
Bishop Tillotson, The Universal Maga- 
zine for November, 1750. 

* Lord Macaulay (History of Eng- 
land, Vol. III., 524) exerts all his great 
skill to prove Penn a Jacobite, as the 



friends of James were then called, mean- 
ing one who favored this king's restora- 
tion. 

5 Bradford's press was the first set 
up in the Middle Colonies. His first is- 
sue was an almanac. 

6 Gabriel Thomas's Pennsylvania 
and West New Jersey, Edition of 1698. 

7 Slavery in Pennsylvania ; see 
Memoirs of The Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Part II. 

8 Asbestos was known to the Egyp- 
tians, who made cloth of the fibre. 

9 The Separation did not actually 
take place till 1776 ; it was a legislative 
separation, the Three Counties remaining 
subject to the same governor. 



TRADITION OF THE LONG WALK. 

We close our account of Pennsylvania with a story 
going to show by what unfair means great bodies of land 
were sometimes obtained of the Indians. On page 98 
mention is made of the peremptory way in which the 



TRADITION OF THE LONG WALK 217 

Delawares of Pennsylvania were ordered off certain of 
their lands by the Iroquois. There is little room to 
doubt that the Delawares had been cheated in the first 
place by the whites, and unjustly punished in the next ; 
and the following account of The Long Walk is intro- 
duced to show why, in later years, the Delawares became 
so bitterly hostile to those who not only had so wickedly 
overreached them, but caused them such deep humilia- 
tion besides. It shows, too, that Penn's noble policy of 
exact justice to the Indians did not long stand against 
human greed. But let the story speak for itself : 

Moses Marshall, in his eightieth year, gave the follow- 
ing particulars which he had from his father, who was 
one of the persons employed to walk out the purchase 
made by William Penn himself, as the tradition has it. 

His father had told him that Penn, soon after his ar- 
rival in this country, purchased a tract of the Indians 
to be bounded by the Delaware on the northeast, and 
the Neshaminy on the northwest, and to extend as far 
back as a man could walk in three days. Penn and the 
Indians began to walk out this land at the mouth of the 
Neshaminy, going up the Delaware. It was said by the 
old people that they walked in a leisurely manner, after 
the Indian fashion, sitting down sometimes to smoke 
their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and to drink a bottle 
of wine together. 

In a day and a half they got to a spruce -tree, near the 
mouth of Baker's Creek, when Penn, thinking this would 
be as much land as he would then want, had a line run 
across to the Neshaminy, leaving the rest to be walked 
out when it should be wanted. 

In the year 1733 public notice was given that the re- 
maining day-and-a-half was to be walked, and that five 



218 TRADITION OF TlrWLONG WALK 

hundred acres of land and £5 in money would be giv- 
en to the person who should walk the farthest within 
the limit of time expressed. 

By previous agreement three white men and three 
Delawares were selected, who were to walk in company, 
and see it all fairly done. 

Accordingly, in September of that year — the account 
says the 20th, because on that day the days and nights 
were of equal length — the pedestrians met at sunrise, at 
the old chestnut-tree below Wrightstown meeting-house, 
together with a great number of spectators, who had 
come to see them start. The walkers all stood with one 
hand against the tree till the sun rose, Avhen they started 
off together at a brisk gait. In two hours and a half 
they reached Ked Hill, in Bedminster, where Jennings 
and two of the Indians gave out. The third Indian con- 
tinued with them to near where the road forks at Easton, 
where he lay down a short time to rest, but on getting u] > 
again was unable to proceed. Marshall and Yates went 
on, arriving at sundown at the north side of the Blue 
Mountains. At sunrise they started on again. While 
crossing a stream at the foot of the mountain Yates be- 
came faint and fell. Marshall turned back with him 
until help was found, when he pushed on alone, arriv- 
ing at noon on a spur of Broad Mountain, estimated to 
be eight} T -six miles from the starting-point. 

He said they walked from sunrise to sunset without 
stopping, provisions and refreshments being previously 
prepared all along the line that had been marked out for 
them to the top of Blue Mountain ; and persons also at- 
tended on horseback, by relays, with several kinds of 
liquors. 

"When they got to the Blue Mountains they found a 



TRADITION OF THE LONG WALK 219 

great many Indians collected in the expectation that the 
walk would end there, but when it was found that it was 
to go half a day's journey farther on, they were very an- 
gry and said they had been cheated. Penn had got all 
their good land away from them, but, said they, in the 
spring every Indian was going to bring him a buckskiu, 
and then they would have their own again, and he might 
go to Hobomoko with his poor land. One old Indian 
said of this walk : " No sit down to smoke, no shoot 
squirrel, nothing but lun, lun, run all day long." 

Marshall further related that the Indians always in- 
sisted that the walk should have gone up the Delaware, 
along the nearest path, which was also his opinion ; and 
that they had been cheated out of their land, though he 
thought that they would have said nothing if the walk 
had not been extended beyond the Blue Mountains. 

The sequel is soon told. When, in 1756, the Dela- 
wares were asked why they had struck the whites, their 
head chief made this reply : " This very land that is 
under me (stamping his foot) was mine by inheritance, 
and is taken from me by fraud. Indians are not such 
fools as not to know when they are imposed upon, or not 
to bear it in remembrance." 

When asked what he meant by fraud in relation to the 
sale of lands, he answered : " All the land, extending 
from Tohickon over the great mountains to Wyoming 
has been taken from me by fraud ; for when I had agreed 
to sell to the old proprietary (Wm. Penn), by the course 
of the river, the young proprietary had it run by a 
straight course, by the compass, by that means taking in 
double— (he might well have said five times)— the quan- 
tity intended to be sold." 



INDEX 



Act of Toleration in Maryland, 82, 84. 
Albany, begun, 131, 127 ; first takes 
this name, 143, see Fort Orange ; 
145 {note) ; described, 158. 
Albemarle Sound explored, 17. 
Alexander, Sir William, his grant of 

Long Island, 150, 157 (note). 
Amidas, Philip, commands one of 
Raleigh's ships, 9, 14 {note) ; sec- 
ond voyage, 15. 
Andros, Edmund, in New York, 165 ; 

arrests Carteret, 166. 
Ann Arundel, Md., 81. 
Annapolis, Md., see Providence; 

85 (note). 
Argall, Samuel, sails a short way to 
Virginia, 50, 53 (note) ; seizes Po- 
cahontas, 58 ; breaks up a French 
colony, 60 ; becomes governor, 62 ; 
quits the colony, 62 ; exploit at 
Manhattan, 119. 
Arundelltown. See Annapolis. 
Barclay, Robert, 167, 168, and (note) 

169. 
Barlow, Arthur, commands one of 

Raleigh's ships, 9, 14 (note). 
Belcher, Thomas, at Brooklyn, 128. 
Bergen, begun, 139; laying out of, 

161. 
Berkeley, Sir John, 168 (note). 
Berkeley, Sir William, 85 (note). 
Bermuda (Hundred), Va., first set- 
tled, 57. 
Bermudas, shipwreck at, 51, 53 
{note) ; annexed to Virginia, 57. 



Billing, Edward, a proprietor of New 

Jersey, 165. 
Blackwell, John (governor of Penn- 
sylvania), 212. 
Block, Adrian, at Manhattan, 118, 

123 (note). 
Bogardus, Everard, 125. 
Bound Brook, N. J., settled, 164. 
Bradford, William, sets up first press, 

212, 216 (note). 
Brooklyn, first settler at, 128, 156 

(note). 
\ Burgesses, name given first Virginia 
Assembly, 63. 
Burlington, N. J., begun 172, 176 

(note). 
Burras, Anne, married, 48. 
Calvert, Cecilius, inherits Maryland, 
70 ; his powers, 70 ; instructs his 
brother how to govern, 78. 
i Calvert, George (Lord Baltimore), ac- 
count of him, 66 ; settles at New- 
foundland, 68 ; removes to Virginia, 
69 ; dies, 69. 
Calvert, Leonard, first governor of 
Maryland, 70; visits Piscataway, 
71 ; buys an Indian village, 72 ; his 
policy toward Virginians in Mary- 
land, 74 ; goes against Kent Island, 
77 ; is overthrown, 80 ; but regains 
Maryland, 81, 85 (note) ; dies, 81. 
Campanius, John, in Delaware, 183, 

187 (note), 
Canasatego, speech in council, 88. 
I Cape Fear, N. C, 16,23 (note). 



222 



[NDE! 



Cape Henry, named, :i.~>. 

Cape May, named, 178; colony for, 

ISO. 

Carteret, Sir George, L68 (note). 
Carteret, Philip, arrives at New Jer- 
sey, 163; arrested, 166, 168 [note). 

Catholics, feeling against their going 
to Virginia, &t ; disfranchised in 
Maryland, 83. 

Cayugas, their country, 95. 

Champlain, Samuel, enters New York, 
90 ; aids the Hurons against the 
Iroquois, 91. 

Chesapeake Bay, entered, 36. 

Chesapeake Indians located, 17, 22 
(note). 

Chester, Pa. (see Upland), settled, 
185; court held at, 193 ; Perm's first 
assembly at, 194; named Chester, 
194, 195 (note), 305. 

Chickahominy visited, 45, 53 (note). 

Chowan River explored, 1?. 

Christiansen, at Albany, 119, 120. 

Christina, Del., see Wilmington; 187 
(note). 

Christina, Queen, 181, 187 (note). 

Claiborne, William, resists Calvert's 
claim to all Maryland, 77 ; is ap- 
pointed commissioner to Maryland, 
82. 

Commonage at Long Island, 154, 157 
(note). 

Corlaer, 100 (notes 2, 6) ; Arendt 
van Corlaer, founds Schenectady, 
140. 

Corlaer, Indian name for governor of 
New York, 93. 

Cornbury, Lord Edward, 176 (note). 

Croatan, supposed refuge of Raleigh's 
lost colony, 29. 

Dale. Sir Thomas, takes people to 
Virginia,, 56; and takes charge of 
the colony, 56; leads settlers to 
Bermuda, 57; his rule and return 
to England, 62. 

Dare, Virginia, born at Roanoke, 28. 



Delaware, early settlers of, 179, 180; 
(Hurts to colonize, 181; arrival of 
Swede's in, 181; they settle near 
Wilmington, 182; Hollander suc- 
ceeds Minuit, 182; more colonists, 
182; their character, 183, 187 (note) ; 
Printz succeeds Hollander, 183; re- 
moves to Tinicum I., 1S4; the 
Swedes get command of the Dela- 
ware, 182 ; conquest by the Dutch, 
185; NcwCastle begun, 185; bound- 
ary dispute with Maryland, 180; 
sold, 180; comes under England, 
187; turned over to Pennsylvania, 
194; dissatisfied with the union, 
211; is set off, 216 and note. 

Delaware, Lord (Thomas West), made 
governor of Virginia, 40; arrives in 
the James, 53 ; finds the colony in 
a bad state, 54 ; points out its 
needs, 55; goes to England, 50; 
dies, 62. 

Delaware River, the name, 178. 

Delawares, ordered out of Pennsyl- 
vania, 09; tradition of, 123 (note) ; 
original and adopted name, 177, 
187 (note). 

De Vries, Pietersen, 128; in Dela- 
ware. 179. 

Drake, Sir Francis, honored, 2, 6 
(note) ; takes off Raleigh's colony, 
21, 22 (note). 

Drayton, Michael, quoted, 34. 

Duke of York (James II.) seizes New 
York, 142; his grant, 145 (note). 

Dutch Gap, settlement begun at, 56, 
65 (note). 

Dutch West India Company created, 
120. 

Elizabeth, Queen, colonizing begins in 
her reign, 1 ; her England, 2, 6 
(note) ; Virginia named for her, 15 ; 
dies, o2. 

Elizabeth town founded, 103. 

Elsenburg. See Salem, N. J. 

Esopus begun, 139, 145 (note). 



INDEX 



223 



Fendall, Josias, governor of Maryland, | 
84. 

Fenwick, John, a proprietor of New 
Jersey, 105 ; brings settlers over, 
172. 

Five Nations. See Iroquois. 

Flushing, L. I., settled, 150. 

Fort Amsterdam, 132. 

Fort Casimir, seized by Swedes, 139 ; 
its location, 185 ; called Trinity, 
185; retaken, 185. 

Fort Nassau, N. J., built, 178, 187 
{note) ; deserted, 180. 

Fort Nassau, N. Y., built, 119, 123 
(note) ; removed, 120. 

Fort Orange, see Albany, 127; site 
of, 134 (note). 

Fort Trinity, Del., 186. 

Freemen, in Maryland, name ex- 
plained, 85 (note). 

Fuller, William, governor of Mary- 
land, 83 ; fights with Stone, 84. 

Gardiner, Lion, at Long Island, 149, 
157 (note). 

Gates, Sir Thomas, goes to Virginia, 
50 ; second voyage to, 56 ; leads 
settlers to Henrico, 57 ; goes home, 
59. 

Germantown, Pa., settled, 201, 207 
(note). 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, first moves 
in colonization, 4; his voyage and 
death, 5, 6, notes 4 and 5. 

Gloucester, first visited. See Fort 
Nassau, 178. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, his New Eng- 
land voyage, 32, 39 (note); dies, 43. 

Granganimeo, an Indian chief, 12. 

Gravesend, L. I., settled, 150; 157 
(note) ; its local government, 152 ; j 
beats off the Indians, 156. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, goes to Vir- 
ginia, 15, 16 ; sails home, 17 ; ar- | 
rives out again, 21, 22 (?wte).- 

Gustavus Adolphus conceives plan of 
a Swedish colony, 180, 181. 



Hamilton, Andrew, 167, 168, 169 
(note). 

Hariot, Thomas, goes to Virginia, 15, 
22 (note) ; his account of Indian 
worship, 30. 

Hartford, a Dutch post, 124 ; seized 
by English, 139. 

Hatteras, first mentioned, 25, 29 
(?wte). 

Hell Gate, first mentioned, 118. 

Hempstead, L. I., settled, 150. 

Henrico, settled, 57, 65 (note). 

Henrietta, Maria, 76 (note). 

Hiawatha, 100 (note). 

Holland, her truce with Spain, 109; 
her commerce, 110 ; relations with 
England, 117 ; an asylum, 118 ; in- 
tolerance in, 122. 

Howe, Daniel, leads settlers to Long 
Island, 156 [note). 

Hudson, Henry, finds the Hudson, 
111; encounter with Indians, 112; 
explores it, 113 ; reception by na- 
tives, 114 ; sails home, 116 and 
note. 

Hudson River, when named, 116. 

Ingle, Richard, seizes St. Mary's, Md., 
80. 

Iroquois, manner of holding councils, 
86 ; their league, 90 et seq. ; their 
country, 91, 100 (note) ; their defeat 
and its results, 92 ; their origin, 93 ; 
how located, 94 ; their Long House, 
94 ; situation, 95 ; their strength, 
95 ; training, 96, 97 ; conquests, 97 ; 
treatment of prisoners, 99 ; their 
name, 100 (note); their policy and 
government, 101 et seq.; totems, 
104 ; manners, 105, 106. 

Irving, Washington, his History of 
New York, 134 (note). 

Jamaica, L. I., begun, 139. 

James I. becomes King, 32 ; what was 
said of him, 32, 33 ; his character, 
35. 

James River, named, 38. 



224 



inde: 



Jamestown begun, 38; first letter 
from,/] 1 .); starving time at, 1.'. IS; 
fire there, 47 ; condition at, 52 ; 
abandoned, but reoccupied, 52, 53; 
dissatisfaction with, 56; state of, 
in 1013, 61 ; first assembly called 
at, 62. 

Jersey City, bought, 125. 

Jogues, Isaac, account of Manhattan, 
130; his story, 134 [note). 

Kecoughtan (Hampton), Va. , located, 
37 ; fight there, 45. 

Kent Island, settled by Virginians, 
74, 7<> [note)\ subjected to Mary- 
land, 77 ; throws off its allegiance, 
80 ; described, 85 {note). 

Kieft, William, director, 128 ; his 
character, 128, 120; makes war, 
129; causes a massacre, 132; sues 
for peace, 133 ; drowned, 134. 

Lake Champlain, legend of, 100 (note). 

Lake George, 100 (note) ; named St. 
Sacrament, 134 (note). 

Lake St. Sacrament. See Lake 
George. 

Lancaster, Pa., council at, with Iro- 
quois, 86, S9 (note). 

Lane, Ralph, goes to Virginia, 15 ; ex- 
plores North Carolina, 1 7 ; is obliged 
to return, 19 ; Indians plot his de- 
struction, 20, 22 (note). 

Laydon, John, married, 48. 

Lenni-Lenape, 187 (note). 

Letitia Cottage, 200 (note). 

Lewiston Creek, settlers at, 179, 187 
(notr 4) ; massacre at, 180. 

Logan, James, 213. 

Long Island, Dutch colonists at, 121 ; 
possible physical changes at, 146 ; 
divisions of population, 146; natives 
of, 147 ; climate, 147 ; settlement 
begins, 148 ; English driven off, 140, 
156 (note) ; towns and order of set- 
tlement, 157 (notes) ; separation be- 
tween English and Dutch, 151, 152 : 
In >w towns were settled, 152; com 



monage at, 154; Dutch towns de- 
populated, 155 ; combination of 
English towns, 156; removals from, 
161. 
Manhattan Island, visited, 118, 123 
(note) ; first colonists of, 121 ; com- 
plaints of Virginia Co., 123 (note) ; 
trade at, 126 ; appearance of, 130, 
L3I ; walled in, 130; raided, 139; 
people meet at, 140. 
Manteo, an Indian, taken to England, 
14 ; returns, 15 ; serves the whites, 
28. 

Markham, William, takes possession 
of Pennsylvania for Penn, 193, 194. 

Maryland, first chartered and named, 
69, 70 ; grant passes to Cecilius Cal- 
vert, 70 ; first colonists, 70, 71 ; first 
landing place, 71 ; first settlement 
in, 72 ; Virginians already in, 73, 74, 
76 (note) ; corn exported, 74 ; trouble 
with theBostonians, 74 ; a Catholic 
colony, 75, 76 (note) ; factional quar- 
rels in, 77, 78 ; how governed, 78 ; 
deputies elected in place of all free- 
men, 79 ; favors Charles I., 79 ; pro- 
prietary government set aside, 80 ; 
reinstated, 81 ; Puritans in, 81 ; par- 
ty strifes in, 82-85. 

Megapolensis, John, at Albany, 131 ; 
his writings, 134 (note). 

Minuit, Peter, a director, 122 ; leaves 
office,. 125 ; goes in charge of Swed- 
ish colony, 181 ; is lost at sea, 182. 

Mohawks, their country, 94 ; chief in 
England, 100 (note), 107 (note) ; ac- 
count of, 134 (note). 

Molina, Don Diego, his account of 
Virginia, 60. 

Moody, Lady Deborah, 152, 157 (not,) ; 
is attacked, 156. 

Morris, Lewis, starts iron- works, 167. 

New Amstel. See New Castle, 
Dee. 

New Amsterdam. See MANHATTAN. 

New Castle, Del., began, 185 ; a cor- 



INDEX 



225 



poration, 187 ; annexed to Pennsyl- 
vania, 200. 
New England, combination of, 133. 
Newfoundland, England takes posses- 
sion of, 4 {note 6) ; Lord Baltimore's 
colony at, 68. 
New Gottenburg, 184. 
New Harlem, begun, 139. 
New Haven Colony, emigrants from, 

to New Jersey, 184, 187 {note). 
New Jersey, early settlers in, 161 
the name, 163 ; given away, 163 
concessions to actual settlers, 163 
quit-rents, 164; government and 
laws, 164; emigrants from New 
England, 164 ; Indian paths in, 165 ; 
sold, 165 ; re-annexed to New York, 
165 ; divided, 166 ; population 
and how divided, 167, 168 {notes) ; 
Quakers in, 163, 169; East Jersey 
given up to the crown, 168 ; settle- 
ments in West Jersey, 172; first 
comers to, 172 ; code of laws, 173 ; 
first assembly of, 173 ; improve- 
ments in, 174 ; fairs, 176 (note) ; 
counties formed, 175; government 
of, goes back to the crown, 175 ; 
the Dutch in, 177-179 ; English ex- 
pelled from, 184 ; Swedes at Salem 
Creek, 184. 
New Netherland, named, 119 ; first 
government of, 121 ; 'and colony, 
121 ; fall of, 142. 
Newport, Christopher, sails for Vir- 
ginia, 35 ; in Chesapeake Bay, 36, 
37 ; explores James River, 38 ; sails 
for England, 39 ; vice-admiral, 50. 
Newport News, 40 {note). 
New Sweden, its founding, 177 et seq. 

See Delaware. 
New Utrecht, settled, 150 ; local gov- 
ernment, 152, 153. 
New York, Iroquois of, SQet seq.; har- 
bor explored, 110; Hudson's im- 
pressions, 114 ; described, 116 (note); 
trading to, 118 ; Dutch warned 
15 



away, 119 ; first colonists, 121 ; their 
progress, 122; their preachers, 122 ; 
traditions, 123 {notes, 1, 4, 10) ; 
Irving's place in its histor' 123 ; 
the patroons, 124, 125 ; farm sys- 
tem, 125 ; ways of trade, 126, 127 ; 
out-settlements, 128 ; Indian wars, 
129, 132; described, 130; building 
up, 131 ; growth of colony, 135 ; ap- 
peal to States, 137 ; treatment by 
company, 138 ; church quarrels, 
138 ; convention of the people, 140 ; 
is taken by English, 142 ; name 
first officially given, 143 ; political 
changes in, 143. 
Norombega, 4 (note 6). 
North Carolina, visited, 10 ; shipwreck 

on, 13 ; capital named, 14. 
Onas, name given Penn, 89 (note). 
Oneidas, their country, 91 ; their 

name, 100 (note). 
Onondagas, their country, 95. 
Opecancanough, a Virginia chief, 47 ; 
his country, 53 (note) ; heads a 
rising, 64. 
Oxenstiern, Axel, his influence upon 

colonization, 181, 187 (note). 
Patroon's Island, site of Fort Nas- 
sau, 119. 
Patroons, The, described, 125, 134 

(note). 
Patuxent becomes capital of Mary- 
land, 83. 
Pauw, Michael, 125, 128, 161. 
Pavonia, 161. See Michael Pauw. 
Penn, Admiral Sir Wm., his money 

founds Pennsylvania, 188, 189. 
Penn, William, arbitrates, 165, 168 
(note) ; turns Quaker, 188 ; his in- 
heritance, 189 ; his grant, 189 ; his 
ideas of government, 190, 191 ; just 
to Indians, 192, 203 ; gets hold of 
Delaware, 194 ; arrives out, 194 ; 
holds his first assembly, 194 ; at 
Philadelphia, 197 ; his activity, 200 ; 
tradition of his treaty, 203, 204, 



226 



INDEX 



307 (/tote) ; goes back to England, 
307 ; is imprisoned, 309 ; is released, 
21 2 ; returns to his province, 213; 
leaves it again, 216 ; Macaulay's 
opinion of, 316, 

Pennsylvania, its origin and name, 
189; its charter, 190; grants full 
toleration, 190 ; possession taken of, 
193; first immigrants, 1'.*:}; is en- 
larged, 104; its extent, 104, 105 
{note); its assembly, 105 [note); 
Maryland boundary, 200 ; counties 
formed, 202 ; local government, 202 ; 
improvements in, 205 ; boundary 
208, 316 [note) ; its prosperity, 200; 
its increase, 210 ; rise of parties in, 
210 ; opposition in lower counties, 
310, 211 ; discontent about rents, 
211 ; local executive changed, 212; 
first press in, 21 2 ; is put under New 
York, 212 ; its trade and manufac- 
tures, 313, 214; population, 214; 
lower counties set off, 216 and note. 

Pennsbury Manor, 206 (note). 

Percy, George, quoted, 43, 53 (note) ; 
in charge of colony, 52. 

Perth Amboy, 168 (note). 

Philadelphia, its beginnings, 105 ; and 
naming, 105; a Swedish hamlet, 
100, 107; Penn buys of Swedes, 107, 
206 (?iote) ; large arrivals at, 108; 
first winter, 100; rapid growth of, 
205, 206 (notes) ; number of houses 
in, 213 ; growth of trade, 213, 214 ; 
has a city charter, 210. 

Piscataway, Md., an Indian village, 
71. 

Piscataway Township, N. J., founded, 
104. 

Pierson, Rev. Abraham, at Long 
Island, 150. 

Plowden, Sir Edmund, 180, 187 
(note). 

Plymouth Colony, its trade with New 
York, 122, 127. 

Pocahontas, saves Smith's life, 46; 



kidnapped, 58; marries, 58; goes 
to England, 02. 

Point Comfort, named, 37 ; forts built 
at, 55. 

Popham, Sir John, 40 (note). 

Potomac River visited, 41, 5:; (note). 

Powhatan, King, takes Smith pris- 
oner, 45 ; releases him, 46 ; crowned, 
48. 

Providence, Md. (see ANNAPOLIS), 81, 
85 (note), 82. 

Puritans settle Annapolis, Md., 81, 85 
(note). 

Quakers, in New Jersey, 163, 160 ; 
their creed, 170. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, his looks, 7, 
(note) ; his character, 8 ; sets forth 
discovery ships, ; his first Virginia 
colony, 15; anecdotes of, 23, 2 1 ; 
starts a second colony, 35 ; sells out 
his Virginia interests, 29; efforts to 
find his colonists, 31, 33. 

Raritans, war with, 129. 

Ratcliffe, John, made president of 
Virginia, 45; deposed, 47; killed, 
53. 

Rensselaerwick, 124, 134 (note). 

Richmond, Va., first visited, 38. 

Rising, John, governor of Delaware, 
185. 

Roanoke Island, visited by whites, 13, 
14 {note) ; first colony at, 15-22 ; set- 
tlement begun, 17; deserted, 21 ; 
described, 22 (note) ; second colony 
at, 24 ; what they found, 35 ; reset- 
tled, 27 ; neglected colonists disap- 
pear, 20 (note). 

Roanoke River, explored, 17. 

Roelandson, Adam, 136. 

Rolfe, John, weds Pocahontas, 58, 65 
(note). 

St. Clement's Island, Md., 71, 76 
(note). 

St. George's Island, 73, 76 (note). 

St. Mary's, Md., first settled, 72 ; first 
Assembly meets at, 78 ; seized from 



INDEX 



227 



the proprietor, 80 ; Catholic ascend- 
ancy at, 82. 
Salem, N. J., begun, 172, 176 {note). 
Schenectady, how begun, 127 ; found- 
ed, 140, 145 {note). 
Schuylkill, settlers or traders at, 184. 
Secotan, 16. 

Senecas, their country, 95. 
Six Nations. See Iroquois. 
Slavery (African) in Virginia, G3 ; in 

Pennsylvania, 214, 216 '{note). 
Smith, Captain John, takes charge at 
Jamestown, 43 ; saves the colony, 
44 ; explores the Chickahominy, 45 ; 
taken prisoner, 46 ; story of his 
rescue, 46 ; explores the Potomac, 
47 ; also the Susquehanna, 47 ; made 
president, 47; returns to England, 
52, 53 (note). 
Somers, Sir George, goes to Virginia, I 

50 ; to Bermuda, 54. 
Somerset County, N. J., settled, 168. 
South (Delaware) River, first colonists 

at, 121, 134 (note). 
Southampton, L. I, begun, 149, 156 
(note) ; not a Dutch town, 151 ; their 
land rights, 154. 
Southold, L. I., settled, 139, 150, 157 

(note) ; under New Haven, 152. 
Spain, claims Virginia, 35 ; shrinks 
from asserting her claim by arms 
35. 
Staten Island, bought, 125 ; settled, 

128; raided, 129. 
Stone, William, governor of Maryland, 
80; deposed, 82; reinstated, 83; 
leads attack against Providence 
84. 
Stuyvesant, Petrus, made director, 
135 ; as a ruler, 138 ; in trouble, 
140; a prisoner, 140; his efforts, 
145 (note). 
Sunderland, Robert, his residence, 195 

(note). 
Susquehanna Fort, 191, 192, 195 
(note). 



Susquehanna River, visited, 47, 53 

(note). 
Swanson, Swan, at Philadelphia, 206 

(note). 
Thomas, Gabriel, 216 {note). 
Three Lower Counties. See Dela- 
ware. 
, Throg's Neck, 157 (note). 
! Tobacco, its introduction into Eu- 
rope, 22; export from Virginia, 60, 
65 (note) ; culture in Maryland, 85. 
Treaty Elm, '.'07 (note). 
Trenton Falls, 187 (note). 
Twenty-four Proprietors, 167. 
Upland (Chester, Pa.) settled, 185; 
court held at, 193; name changed 
to Chester, 194. 
Van Rensselaer, Killian, buys land in 

New York, 124. 
Van Twiller, Wouter, succeeds Min- 

uit, 125 ; removed, 128. 
Varina, location of, 58, 65 {note). 
Virginia, first visited by English, 10; 
first reports of, 14 ; first colony to, 
15, 22 (note) ; named, 15; deserted, 
21 ; second colony to, 25 ; first white 
born in, 28 ; disappearance of this 
colony, 29 ; third colony chartered, 
33; stories circulated, 34; Spain 
protests, 35 ; new colony sails for, 
35 ; begins Jamestown, 38 ; religious 
worship in, 39, 40 (note) ; colonists 
starving, 42 ; relieved by Newport, 
47 ; more colonists arrive, 47 ; still 
more, 48 ; new charter and limits of, 
49 ; strength of new colony, 51 ; only 
part arrive out, 51 ; the rest arrive, 
52 ; Lord Delaware stops its deser- 
tion, 53, 54 ; is strengthened, 56 ; 
Indians subjugated, 59; new set- 
tlements, 61 ; number of colonists, 
61 ; an assembly called, 62 ; slavery 
begins, 63; the massacre, 64, 65 
(note). 
Wade, Robert, his residence, 195 
(note). 



cZ 4 1 9f< 



228 



IXDl^ 






Werowocomoco, Smith a captive at, 

46, 53 {note). 
Weymouth, George, his voyage to Xew 

England, 32, 40 {note). 
White, John, goe-; to Virginia, 15 ; his 

drawings, 22 {note) ; heads a colony, 

25 ; his unfortunate choice, 28 ; goes 

to England, 28 ; returns, 29. 
Wicaco, Swedish hamlet, H)7. See 

Philadelphia. 
Willett, Thomas, first mayor of New 

York, 143, 145 {note). 



Wilmington, Del., first occupied, 181, 

187 {note). ■ iL 9 

Wingfield, Edward .Maria, 45, 53 

{not( ). 
Wococon, 13, 14 {note) ; (Jrcnville at, 

10. 
Woodbridge, N. J., settled, 164. 
Wotton, Thomas, surgeon, 42. 
Yeardley, Sir George, takes charge of 

Virginia, 02 ; calls first Assembly, 

62. 









